From womb to adulthood, our mother tongue is known to shape our experience of speech. A major compound of the language to which an individual is exposed during his life is contained in the temporal structure, or rhythm, of speech signals. Exposure native language rhythms has been shown to strongly constrain the ability to understand and learn other languages. Yet, a comprehensive view of the processing of speech rhythms from a neural standpoint is still lacking. The LaBRhythms project will investigate the hypothesis that neural oscillations are instrumental in the processing of language-specific speech rhythms, and for the communication of speech information across brain areas. The project will give new insights into the brain mechanisms of complex temporal information processing in speech. It aims in particular at reconciling the linguistic approaches in the study of speech rhythms, which emphasize the cross-linguistic variability in temporal information, with the prevailing neurophysiological framework of speech processing that for now only focused on the periodicities in the speech signal.
Related publications:
The LaBRhythms project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 843088 (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions).
Related publications:
- Kösem, A., Dai, B., McQueen, J. M., & Hagoort, P. (2023). Neural tracking of speech does not unequivocally reflect intelligibility. Neuroimage. [pdf]
- Dai, B., McQueen, J. M., Terporten, R., Hagoort, P., & Kösem, A. (2022). Distracting Linguistic Information Impairs Neural Tracking of Attended Speech. Current Research in Neurobiology, 100043. [pdf]
- Dikker, S., Assaneo, F., Gwilliams, L., Wang, L., Kösem, A. (2020) MEG and Language: Using Magnetoencephalography to Study the Neural Basis of Language. Neuroimaging Clinics, 30 (2), 229-238. [pdf]
The LaBRhythms project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 843088 (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions).