Neural synchrony predicts children's learning of novel words

Abstract

Social interactions have a well-studied influence on early development and language learning. Recent work has begun to investigate the neural mechanisms that underlie shared representations of input, documenting neural synchrony or coupling (measured using intersubject temporal correlations of neural activity) between individuals exposed to the same stimulus. Neural synchrony has been found to predict the quality of engagement with a stimulus and with communicative cues, but studies have yet to address how neural synchrony among children may relate to real-time learning. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), we recorded the neural activity of 45 children (3.5-4.5 years) during joint book reading with an adult experimenter. The custom childrens book contained four novel words and objects embedded in an unfolding story, as well as a range of narrative details about object functions and character roles. We observed synchronized neural activity between child participants during book reading and found a positive correlation between learning and intersubject neural synchronization in parietal cortex, an area implicated in narrative-level processing in adult research. Our findings suggest that childrens learning is facilitated by active neural engagement with the dynamics of natural social input.