From womb to adulthood, our native language is known to shape our experience of speech. A major compound of the language to which an individual is exposed during his life is contained in the native speech’s temporal structure, or rhythm. Exposure to native language rhythms has been shown to strongly constrain the ability to understand other languages. Yet, a comprehensive view of the processing of speech rhythm from a neural standpoint is still lacking. It is also unclear how the language rhythm influences linguistic processing during language learning: can exposure to native language rhythm facilitate speech comprehension in children? Can we improve non-native comprehension in second language learner via exposure to non-native language rhythmic cues?

In this project, we investigate the influence of speech rhythms on language processing from both a a behavioural and a neural standpoint, using state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques.