When infants and adults communicate, they exchange social signals of availability and communicative intention such as eye gaze. Previous research indicates that when communication is successful, ...close temporal dependencies arise between adult speakers’ and listeners’ neural activity. However, it is not known whether similar neural contingencies exist within adult–infant dyads. Here, we used dual-electroencephalography to assess whether direct gaze increases neural coupling between adults and infants during screen-based and live interactions. In experiment 1 (n = 17), infants viewed videos of an adult who was singing nursery rhymes with (i) direct gaze (looking forward), (ii) indirect gaze (head and eyes averted by 20°), or (iii) direct-oblique gaze (head averted but eyes orientated forward). In experiment 2 (n = 19), infants viewed the same adult in a live context, singing with direct or indirect gaze. Gaze-related changes in adult–infant neural network connectivity were measured using partial directed coherence. Across both experiments, the adult had a significant (Granger) causal influence on infants’ neural activity, which was stronger during direct and direct-oblique gaze relative to indirect gaze. During live interactions, infants also influenced the adult more during direct than indirect gaze. Further, infants vocalized more frequently during live direct gaze, and individual infants who vocalized longer also elicited stronger synchronization from the adult. These results demonstrate that direct gaze strengthens bidirectional adult–infant neural connectivity during communication. Thus, ostensive social signals could act to bring brains into mutual temporal alignment, creating a joint-networked state that is structured to facilitate information transfer during early communication and learning.
During their first year, infants attune to the faces and language(s) that are frequent in their environment. The present study investigates the impact of language familiarity on how French‐learning ...9‐ and 12‐month‐olds recognize own‐race faces. In Experiment 1, infants were familiarized with the talking face of a Caucasian bilingual German‐French speaker reciting a nursery rhyme in French (native condition) or in German (non‐native condition). In the test phase, infants’ face recognition was tested by presenting a picture of the speaker's face they were familiarized with, side by side with a novel face. At 9 and 12 months, neither infants in the native condition nor the ones in the non‐native condition clearly recognized the speaker's face. In Experiment 2, we familiarized infants with the still picture of the speaker's face, along with the auditory speech stream. This time, both 9‐ and 12‐month‐olds recognized the face of the speaker they had been familiarized with, but only if she spoke in their native language. This study shows that at least from 9 months of age, language modulates the way faces are recognized.
•Longitudinal EEG study in which 4, 7- & 11-month infants listened to nursery rhymes.•We demonstrate cortical speech tracking via delta & theta neural signals (mTRF).•Periodogram (PSD) analysis ...revealed stimulus related delta and theta PSD peaks.•Delta and theta driven phase amplitude coupling (PAC) was found at all ages.•Gamma frequency amplitudes displayed stronger PAC to low frequency phases than beta.
The amplitude envelope of speech carries crucial low-frequency acoustic information that assists linguistic decoding at multiple time scales. Neurophysiological signals are known to track the amplitude envelope of adult-directed speech (ADS), particularly in the theta-band. Acoustic analysis of infant-directed speech (IDS) has revealed significantly greater modulation energy than ADS in an amplitude-modulation (AM) band centred on ∼2 Hz. Accordingly, cortical tracking of IDS by delta-band neural signals may be key to language acquisition. Speech also contains acoustic information within its higher-frequency bands (beta, gamma). Adult EEG and MEG studies reveal an oscillatory hierarchy, whereby low-frequency (delta, theta) neural phase dynamics temporally organize the amplitude of high-frequency signals (phase amplitude coupling, PAC). Whilst consensus is growing around the role of PAC in the matured adult brain, its role in the development of speech processing is unexplored.
Here, we examined the presence and maturation of low-frequency (<12 Hz) cortical speech tracking in infants by recording EEG longitudinally from 60 participants when aged 4-, 7- and 11- months as they listened to nursery rhymes. After establishing stimulus-related neural signals in delta and theta, cortical tracking at each age was assessed in the delta, theta and alpha control bands using a multivariate temporal response function (mTRF) method. Delta-beta, delta-gamma, theta-beta and theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) was also assessed. Significant delta and theta but not alpha tracking was found. Significant PAC was present at all ages, with both delta and theta -driven coupling observed.
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The current study investigates how educational media influences the early bilingual language development of Pakistani children. An exploratory sequential research design was employed, spanning a ...16-week observation period and the utilisation of a Likert-scale based questionnaire. A cohort of twenty 5-year-old children and their parents participated in the study. The findings reveal that exposure to second language (L2) culture through educational media can positively impact learning. However, the efficacy of this influence is contingent upon various factors such as media quality, frequency and duration of exposure, and cultural relevance. Furthermore, the study outlines both favourable and adverse outcomes of L2 cultural exposure on children's behaviour. Positive effects include fostering an appreciation for diverse cultures, enhancing language proficiency, and promoting cultural competence. Conversely, negative consequences encompass inappropriate behaviour and an over-reliance on screen time. The paper concludes by offering suggestions to parents and educators for mitigating negative effects. These recommendations involve monitoring screen time, introducing alternative forms of entertainment, and leveraging cartoons and nursery rhymes as tools to teach cultural diversity and encourage identity formation. Lastly, the study underscores the significance of combining the use of educational media with other language learning techniques to deliver a holistic language learning experience.
Consultants and pundits assert that the business-to-business (B2B) buying process has changed markedly in recent years due to the emergence of online, digital applications and software. Recognizing ...that impactful, and truly innovative future research is perhaps best created when built on the foundation of past science, we review the arc of B2B buying process modeling from 1956 to the present. Our goals with this research are to: 1. capture the genealogy and evolution of thinking across the years in terms of foundation theories, reasoning approach, types of models, factors researched, and journals in which articles were published, 2. identify the thematic inflection points in the research stream that have led to the current conceptualizations, and 3. suggest a research agenda for the future. We discovered that academic understanding of the B2B buying process has progressed in waves featuring seven themes – transactions, situations, influences, responses, relationships, networks and journeys. Looking to the future, we recommend that scholars examine five areas of research: the impact of technology, modes of customer and supplier interaction, decision-making approaches, tensions between internal and external communities, and B2B marketing analytics.
•There are seven thematic inflection points in the B2B buying process research stream.•The research waves have moved from transactions, situations, influences, responses, relationships, networks and journeys.•Scholars in the future should examine key issues of the impact of technology on the B2B buying process.
Nursery rhymes provide insights into the traditions, beliefs, and values of a culture, thereby making it an integral part of a community’s heritage. As representative linguistic resources within the ...intangible cultural heritage of the Hoklo people, Minnan nursery rhymes (MNRs) play a crucial role in connecting the Chinese mainland, Taiwan Strait, and overseas Chinese communities. This study delves into features of 617 traditional and 289 modern pieces through text mining techniques, including text segmentation, the TF-IDF (term frequency-inverse document frequency) method, and the complex network analysis. We examine the frequency and emotional purity of lyrics at a larger scale than previous studies using a small set of manually annotated samples. Furthermore, we analyze the patterns of MNRs by assessing the overall, individual, core-periphery structures of the constructed MNR networks, considering key terms as nodes and co-occurrence relationships between nodes as links. Our investigation reveals the heterogeneous nature of terms in both traditional and modern MNR networks. Moreover, through the community detection method, we identify five primary imagery features presented in MNRs. Traditional MNRs place emphasis on family relationships, folk culture, and food culture, reflecting enduring aspects of Minnan cultural heritage. In contrast, modern MNRs pivot towards themes of children’s emotions and natural scenery, indicative of evolving societal values. This study represents the first large-scale complex network analysis of MNRs, providing valuable insights into the embedded Minnan culture and serving as a foundation for further research into the societal dynamics reflected in these cherished MNRs resources.
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