Words and Meters: Neural Evidence for a Connection Between Individual Differences in Statistical Learning and Rhythmic Ability in Infancy.

ABSTRACT: Music and language are both hierarchically structured: syllables combine into words, and meters are groupings of musical beats. Statistical learning (SL) supports speech segmentation through computation of transitional probabilities between syllables, and individual differences in SL ability were found predictive of further language development. The current study investigated whether rhythmic ability (RA; the ability to perceive the beat and infer the meter in a rhythmic stimulus auditory input) correlated with SL in 6- to 9-month-old infants. We further explored whether RA of the parents predicted infant RA and/or SL. We used EEG to measure infants' neural entrainment in two conditions: (1) a speech segmentation SL condition in which transitional probabilities between syllables were the o

SUBMITTER: van der Wulp I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12754635 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature