Modulating Neural Tracking of Speech in Infants

Abstract

Neural oscillations synchronize to the rhythmic structure of speech, a process known as cortical tracking that is thought to support speech perception and language acquisition. Individual differences in cortical tracking during infancy predict later language outcomes, yet little is known about whether this neural mechanism can be shaped by recent auditory experience early in development. Here, we tested whether brief exposure to structured musical rhythms modulates cortical tracking of speech in Spanish-Basque bilingual infants at 6 and 10 months of age. Infants listened to speech preceded by either temporally regular musical sequences that mirrored the rhythmic structure of the speech signal or rhythmically irregular musical sequences. Cortical tracking was measured using electroencephalography and quantified as speech-brain coherence in the delta and theta frequency bands. Regular musical sequences enhanced subsequent cortical tracking of speech, but the effects varied across age, language, and frequency band. In Spanish, rhythmic priming enhanced delta-band tracking at 10 months of age, whereas in Basque it enhanced theta-band tracking at both 6 and 10 months. These language-specific effects suggest that rhythmic priming interacts with the temporal properties of individual languages and infants developing linguistic experience. Together, the findings demonstrate that cortical tracking is a highly flexible neural mechanism during infancy and can be rapidly modulated by structured rhythmic input. Thus, we identify rhythmic experience as a potential pathway through which infants auditory environment shapes neural speech processing during language development.