Oscillatory activity and EEG phase synchrony of concurrent word segmentation and meaning-mapping in 9-year-old children

Abstract

Highlights Sixty 9-year-old children performed an audio-visual statistical learning task. Children showed successful recognition of words and word-to-picture associations. Enhanced neural tracking at word and syllable rate for consistent audio-visual streams. Enhanced long-distance scalp-based phase synchronization suggested multi-sensory integration. Multi-sensory cues may increase attention to enhance learning in children.

The power of rhythms: how steady-state evoked responses reveal early neurocognitive development

“…If participants detect these statistical regularities, a steady-state response should emerge at the word presentation rate. Such artificial grammars proved particularly useful to directly explore the cerebral bases of an online learning mechanism ( Batterink and Paller, 2017 , 2019 ; Batterink and Zhang, 2022 ; Buiatti et al, 2009 ; Elmer et al, 2021 ; Farthouat et al, 2017 , 2018 ; Henin et al, 2021 ; Ordin et al, 2020 ; Ramos-Escobar et al, 2021 ).…”

Challenges and new perspectives of developmental cognitive EEG studies

“…Such analyses capitalize on the brain property to adapt its oscillatory activity to the rhythm of a visual or auditory stimulus presented periodically ( Regan, 1982 ;Picton et al, 2003 ). For example, in adults, scalp or intracranial EEG collected during continuous stimuli such as speech or musical pieces has been successfully used to demonstrate that neural tuning occurs at the specific frequencies contained in the input ( Nozaradan et al, 2014 ;Giraud and Poeppel, 2012 ;Teng and Poeppel, 2020 ;Lerousseau et al, 2021 ;Henin et al, 2021 ;Elmer et al, 2021 ;Ramos-Escobar et al, 2021. Typically, adults' brain activity shows a clear peak at stimulation frequency for auditory, visual, and somatosensory continuous inputs ( Galambos et al, 1981 ;Namerow et al, 1974 ;Norcia et al, 2015 ).…”