Seminar Team Language 06/06/2024

Jules Fumel 

Rhythmic Priming and Speech Production: link between Neural Entrainment and Sensorimotor Synchronization.

Various studies to date have shown the impact of rhythmic priming on language processing. According to the PRISM model (Fiveash et al., 2021), three underlying mechanisms are proposed to explain this impact: precise auditory processing, entrainment of neural oscillations to external stimuli, and sensorimotor coupling that enables a close connection between perception and production. The aim of our study was to assess the impact of auditory rhythm on speech production, and to examine the role of the latter two elements. First, participants listened to regular and irregular rhythms in a rhythmic priming paradigm and produced sentences. EEG and speech data were collected. Then, participants performed several tapping tasks. In the priming task, the degree of coherence between the EEG signal and the envelope of the acoustic signal was established.  In sensorimotor tasks, the accuracy and consistency of tapping were calculated.  We will present the link between coherence and sensorimotor abilities and discuss whether and how they may shed light on the mechanisms underlying the impact of rhythm on speech and language processing.