Cantiani Chiara, Dondena Chiara, Molteni Massimo, Riva Valentina, Piazza Caterina
Child Psychopathology Unit, Scientific Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Lecco, Italy.
Bioengineering Lab, Scientific Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Lecco, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2022 Oct 21;13:944670. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.944670. eCollection 2022.
Neural entrainment is defined as the process whereby brain activity, and more specifically neuronal oscillations measured by EEG, synchronize with exogenous stimulus rhythms. Despite the importance that neural oscillations have assumed in recent years in the field of auditory neuroscience and speech perception, in human infants the oscillatory brain rhythms and their synchronization with complex auditory exogenous rhythms are still relatively unexplored. In the present study, we investigate infant neural entrainment to complex non-speech (musical) and speech rhythmic stimuli; we provide a developmental analysis to explore potential similarities and differences between infants' and adults' ability to entrain to the stimuli; and we analyze the associations between infants' neural entrainment measures and the concurrent level of development. 25 8-month-old infants were included in the study. Their EEG signals were recorded while they passively listened to non-speech and speech rhythmic stimuli modulated at different rates. In addition, Bayley Scales were administered to all infants to assess their cognitive, language, and social-emotional development. Neural entrainment to the incoming rhythms was measured in the form of peaks emerging from the EEG spectrum at frequencies corresponding to the rhythm envelope. Analyses of the EEG spectrum revealed clear responses above the noise floor at frequencies corresponding to the rhythm envelope, suggesting that - similarly to adults - infants at 8 months of age were capable of entraining to the incoming complex auditory rhythms. Infants' measures of neural entrainment were associated with concurrent measures of cognitive and social-emotional development.
神经夹带被定义为大脑活动，更具体地说是通过脑电图测量的神经元振荡与外部刺激节奏同步的过程。尽管近年来神经振荡在听觉神经科学和语音感知领域具有重要意义，但在人类婴儿中，振荡性脑节律及其与复杂听觉外部节律的同步性仍相对未被探索。在本研究中，我们调查了婴儿对复杂非言语（音乐）和言语节奏刺激的神经夹带；我们进行了一项发育分析，以探索婴儿和成人对刺激进行夹带的能力之间的潜在异同；并且我们分析了婴儿神经夹带测量值与同期发育水平之间的关联。25名8个月大的婴儿被纳入研究。在他们被动聆听以不同速率调制的非言语和言语节奏刺激时，记录他们的脑电图信号。此外，对所有婴儿进行贝利量表测试，以评估他们的认知、语言和社会情感发育情况。以脑电图频谱中与节奏包络相对应的频率处出现的峰值形式来测量对传入节奏的神经夹带。脑电图频谱分析显示，在与节奏包络相对应的频率处，有明显高于本底噪声的反应，这表明与成年人一样，8个月大的婴儿能够对传入的复杂听觉节奏进行夹带。婴儿的神经夹带测量值与认知和社会情感发育的同期测量值相关。
