The effects of referential continuity on novel word learning in bilingual and monolingual preschoolers.

Previous research suggests that monolingual children learn words more readily in contexts with referential continuity (i.e., repeated labeling of the same referent) than in contexts with referential discontinuity (i.

Psychosocial Function in Mild Cognitive Impairment: Social Participation is Associated With Cognitive Performance in Multiple Domains.

Psychosocial function is associated with cognitive performance cross-sectionally and cognitive decline over time. Using data from the COMPASS-ND study, we examined associations between psychosocial and cognitive function in 126 individuals with mild cognitive impairment, an at-risk group for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Psychosocial function was measured using questionnaires about mental health, social support, and social engagement.

Human Auditory-Motor Networks Show Frequency-Specific Phase-Based Coupling in Resting-State MEG.

Perception and production of music and speech rely on auditory-motor coupling, a mechanism which has been linked to temporally precise oscillatory coupling between auditory and motor regions of the human brain, particularly in the beta frequency band. Recently, brain imaging studies using magnetoencephalography (MEG) have also shown that accurate auditory temporal predictions specifically depend on phase coherence between auditory and motor cortical regions. However, it is not yet clear whether this tight oscillatory phase coupling is an intrinsic feature of the auditory-motor loop, or whether it is only elicited by task demands.

An integrated empirical and computational study to decipher help-seeking behaviors and vocal stigma.

Background: Professional voice users often experience stigma associated with voice disorders and are reluctant to seek medical help. This study deployed empirical and computational tools to (1) quantify the experience of vocal stigma and help-seeking behaviors in performers; and (2) predict their modulations with peer influences in social networks.

Methods: Experience of vocal stigma and information-motivation-behavioral (IMB) skills were prospectively profiled using online surveys from a total of 403 Canadians (200 singers and actors and 203 controls).

Pleasantness makes a good time: musical consonance shapes interpersonal synchronization in dyadic joint action.

Introduction: Music making is a process by which humans across cultures come together to create patterns of sounds that are aesthetically pleasing. What remains unclear is how this aesthetic outcome affects the sensorimotor interaction between participants.

Method: Here we approach this question using an interpersonal sensorimotor synchronization paradigm to test whether the quality of a jointly created chord (consonant vs.

A Multimodal Investigation of Listening Effort in Single-Sided Deafness.

Purpose: For patients with single-sided deafness (SSD), choosing between bone conduction devices (BCDs) and contralateral routing of signal hearing aids (CROS) is challenging due to mixed evidence on their benefits. The lack of clear guidelines complicates clinical decision making. This study explores whether realistic spatial listening measures can reveal a clinically valid benefit and if the optimal choice varies among patients.

The Ramp protocol: Uncovering individual differences in walking to an auditory beat using TeensyStep.

Intentionally walking to the beat of an auditory stimulus seems effortless for most humans. However, studies have revealed significant individual differences in the spontaneous tendency to synchronize. Some individuals tend to adapt their walking pace to the beat, while others show little or no adjustment.

Inhibitory control and working memory predict rhythm production abilities in patients with neurocognitive deficits.

Deficits in rhythm perception and production have been reported in a variety of psychiatric, neurodevelopmental and neurologic disorders. Since correlations between rhythmic abilities and cognitive functions have been demonstrated in neurotypical individuals, we here investigate whether and how rhythmic abilities are associated with cognitive functions in 35 participants with neurocognitive deficits due to acquired brain lesions. We systematically assessed a diverse set of rhythm perception and production abilities including time and beat perception and finger-tapping tasks.

Differences Between French and English in the Use of Suprasegmental Cues for the Short-Term Recall of Word Lists.

Purpose: Greater recognition of the impact of hearing loss on cognitive functions has led speech/hearing clinics to focus more on auditory memory outcomes. Typically evaluated by scoring participants' recall on a list of unrelated words after they have heard the list read out loud, this method implies pitch and timing variations across words. Here, we questioned whether these variations could impact performance differentially in one language or another.

Neural response to vocal emotional intensity in youth.

Previous research has identified regions of the brain that are sensitive to emotional intensity in faces, with some evidence for developmental differences in this pattern of response. However, comparable understanding of how the brain tracks linear variations in emotional prosody is limited-especially in youth samples. The current study used novel stimuli (morphing emotional prosody from neutral to anger/happiness in linear increments) to investigate whether neural response to vocal emotion was parametrically modulated by emotional intensity and whether there were age-related changes in this effect.

The child the apple eats: processing of argument structure in Mandarin verb-final sentences.

Mandarin Chinese is typologically unusual among the world's languages in having flexible word order despite a near absence of inflectional morphology. These features of Mandarin challenge conventional linguistic notions such as subject and object and the divide between syntax and semantics. In the present study, we tested monolingual processing of argument structure in Mandarin verb-final sentences, where word order alone is not a reliable cue.

Individual differences in the consistency of neural and behavioural responses to speech sounds.

There are documented individual differences among adults in the consistency of speech sound processing, both at neural and behavioural levels. Some adults show more consistent neural responses to speech sounds than others, as measured by an event-related potential called the frequency-following response (FFR); similarly, some adults show more consistent behavioural responses to native speech sounds than others, as measured by two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) and visual analog scaling (VAS) tasks. Adults also differ in how successfully they can perceive non-native speech sounds.

Does music training improve inhibition control in children? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Inhibition control is an essential executive function during children's development, underpinning self-regulation and the acquisition of social and language abilities. This executive function is intensely engaged in music training while learning an instrument, a complex multisensory task requiring monitoring motor performance and auditory stream prioritization. This novel meta-analysis examined music-based training on inhibition control in children.

Speech sensorimotor relationships in francophone preschoolers and adults: Adaptation to real-time auditory feedback perturbations.

Purpose: This study investigates the development of sensorimotor relationships by examining adaptation to real-time perturbations of auditory feedback.

Method: Acoustic signals were recorded while preschoolers and adult speakers of Canadian French produced several utterances of the front rounded vowel /ø/ for which F2 was gradually shifted up to a maximum of 40%.

Results: The findings indicate that, although preschool-aged children produced overall similar responses to the perturbed feedback, they displayed significantly more trial-to-trial variability than adults.

Impact of Stimulation Frequency on Verbal Fluency Following Bilateral Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease.

Objective: The effects of stimulation frequency on verbal fluency (VF) following subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) are not well understood. The present study examines the impact stimulation frequency has on VF following bilateral STN-DBS in PD.

Methods: Prospective study of 38 consecutive patients with PD with low frequency STN-DBS (LFS) (n = 10) and high frequency STN-DBS (HFS) (n = 14), and a non-operated PD control group consisting of patients with fluctuating response to dopaminergic medication (n = 14) homogeneous in age, education, disease duration, and global cognitive function.

Approaches to studying emotion using physiological responses to spoken narratives: A scoping review.

Narratives are effective tools for evoking emotions, and physiological measurements provide a means of objectively assessing emotional reactions - making them a potentially powerful pair of tools for studying emotional processes. However, extent research combining emotional narratives and physiological measurement varies widely in design and application, making it challenging to identify previous work, consolidate findings, and design effective experiments. Our scoping review explores the use of auditory emotional narratives and physiological measures in research, examining paradigms, study populations, and represented emotions.

Native and non-native parsing of adjective placement - An ERP study of Mandarin and English sentence processing.

Adjectives in English and Mandarin are typically prenominal, but the corresponding grammatical rules vary in subtle ways. Our event-related potential (ERP) study shows that native speakers of both languages rely on similar processing mechanisms when reading sentences with anomalous noun-adjective order (e.g.

Subtle Patterns of Altered Responsiveness to Delayed Auditory Feedback during Finger Tapping in People Who Stutter.

Differences in sensorimotor integration mechanisms have been observed between people who stutter (PWS) and controls who do not. Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) introduces timing discrepancies between perception and action, disrupting sequence production in verbal and non-verbal domains. While DAF consistently enhances speech fluency in PWS, its impact on non-verbal sensorimotor synchronization abilities remains unexplored.

Information-based rhythmic transcranial magnetic stimulation to accelerate learning during auditory working memory training: a proof-of-concept study.

Introduction: Rhythmic transcranial magnetic stimulation (rhTMS) has been shown to enhance auditory working memory manipulation, specifically by boosting theta oscillatory power in the dorsal auditory pathway during task performance. It remains unclear whether these enhancements (i) persist beyond the period of stimulation, (ii) if they can accelerate learning and (iii) if they would accumulate over several days of stimulation. In the present study, we investigated the lasting behavioral and electrophysiological effects of applying rhTMS over the left intraparietal sulcus (IPS) throughout the course of seven sessions of cognitive training on an auditory working memory task.

Integrating Emotion Perception in Rehabilitation Programs for Cochlear Implant Users: A Call for a More Comprehensive Approach.

Purpose: Postoperative rehabilitation programs for cochlear implant (CI) recipients primarily emphasize enhancing speech perception. However, effective communication in everyday social interactions necessitates consideration of diverse verbal social cues to facilitate language comprehension. Failure to discern emotional expressions may lead to maladjusted social behavior, underscoring the importance of integrating social cues perception into rehabilitation initiatives to enhance CI users' well-being.

Improving emotion perception in cochlear implant users: insights from machine learning analysis of EEG signals.

Background: Although cochlear implants can restore auditory inputs to deafferented auditory cortices, the quality of the sound signal transmitted to the brain is severely degraded, limiting functional outcomes in terms of speech perception and emotion perception. The latter deficit negatively impacts cochlear implant users' social integration and quality of life; however, emotion perception is not currently part of rehabilitation. Developing rehabilitation programs incorporating emotional cognition requires a deeper understanding of cochlear implant users' residual emotion perception abilities.