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DTSTAMP:20250708T210342Z
DESCRIPTION:Please join us for a CRBLM Invited Lecture by Victoria Leong\, 
 PhD (Cambridge University)\, who will present 'The role of rhythmic entrai
 nment in early language learning' on Wednesday\, November 5th at 3 pm in t
 he Goodman Cancer Centre\, Room 501.\nAbstract\nYoung children spontaneous
 ly develop awareness of 'big' phonological (speech sound) units like proso
 dic stress patterns\, syllables and rhymes. By ~2 years of age\, children 
 can count the number of syllables in a word\, and say whether two words rh
 yme. Remarkably\, even 7.5-month-old infants can use prosodic rhythm (moti
 fs of strong and weak syllables) to segment words from continuous speech. 
 These are complex feats of speech engineering\, requiring the child to de-
 construct the overt acoustic spectro-temporal structure of the speech sign
 al in order to reveal the latent phonological building blocks of the Engli
 sh language - a nested hierarchy of prosodic stress patterns\, syllables a
 nd onset-rime units. This ability to hack the acoustic signal for its stru
 ctural components is particularly crucial for infants\, who have to infer 
 and build a phonological system from the ground up.\nI will present a simp
 le computational model which simulates how infants might accomplish this r
 emarkable feat by tapping into the 'Acoustic-Emergent Phonology (AEP)' wit
 hin the speech signal. AEP is an emergent property of the oscillatory arch
 itecture of the speech signal that provides a blueprint for phonological s
 tructure. I further suggest that this process of acoustic-phonological ext
 raction is mediated neurally by multi-timescale rhythmic entrainment of ne
 uronal oscillations in the auditory cortex. I will then address the possib
 ility that poor rhythmic entrainment by the dyslexic brain results in faul
 ty extraction of phonology from the speech signal\, producing the classic 
 phonological deficit that characterises dyslexia. Finally\, I will discuss
  how rhythmically-rich language devices like Motherese and nursery rhymes 
 act to enhance neural entrainment\, which could be an important mechanism 
 for language learning as well as for the establishment of interpersonal sy
 nchrony. \nBio:\nDr Victoria Leong is a Junior Research Fellow in Psycholo
 gy at the University of Cambridge\, UK. She is a cognitive developmental n
 euroscientist whose interests lie in the field of language development and
  dyslexia. She uses EEG and computational modelling to understand how the 
 child's brain extracts phonological structure (patterns of prosodic rhythm
 \, syllables and onset-rime units) from the acoustic spectro-temporal stru
 cture of speech. She is also interested in how phonological development go
 es awry in dyslexia\, and in developing ways to use natural 'rhythm enrich
 ment' in the auditory environment (e.g. poetry\, music) for intervention.
 \nVicky received her undergraduate degree in Medical Sciences from the Uni
 versity of Cambridge (2001). After working as a special education teacher 
 and in special education policy in Singapore\, she returned to Cambridge f
 or a Masters in Psychology & Education (2007)\, followed by a PhD in Psych
 ology (2013). Vicky's PhD thesis was awarded the 2014 Robert J. Glushko Pr
 ize by the Cognitive Science Society\, in recognition of outstanding cross
 -disciplinary work. Shortly after completing her PhD\, Vicky was awarded a
  Junior Research Fellowship for early-career independent research\, which 
 she conducts at the Centre for Neuroscience in Education at Cambridge. Two
  of her most recent projects (funded by research grants from the British A
 cademy and the UK Economic & Social Research Council) investigate 'Mothere
 se' perception in dyslexia\, and methods for capturing mother-infant synch
 rony during dyadic interactions using 'live EEG'.\n
DTSTART:20141105T200000Z
DTEND:20141105T210000Z
LOCATION:1160 av des Pins ouest\, CA\, Goodman Cancer Research Centre\, Roo
 m 501\, 1200 Pine Avenue West
SUMMARY:The role of neural rhythmic entrainment in early language learning:
  Victoria Leong\, PhD
URL:/channels-contribute/channels/event/role-neural-rh
 ythmic-entrainment-early-language-learning-victoria-leong-phd-239922
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