BabyMindReader: a multivariate NIRS-EEG neural decoder to decipher newborns' inital representations of speech prosody

Project description

The role of prosody in infants

Newborns start learning about their mother tongue sooner than many think is possible. According to research, infants are able to identify who is speaking to them. This is the important role of prosody (a pattern of rhythm and sounds): to enable infants to identify elements of their mother-tongue. However, there is currently no direct evidence showing that infants are born with a clear neural representation of prosody. EU-funded BabyMindReader will study functional brain activity decoding in newborns (initial depictions of speech prosody). It will apply an innovative interdisciplinary approach combining experimental methods in infant language research with technical advancements of artificial intelligence, near-infrared spectroscopy and EEG methods to unveil the basis of language acquisition.

Fields of science

• social sciences › psychology › psycholinguistics
• natural sciences › computer and information sciences › artificial intelligence
• humanities › languages and literature › linguistics › phonetics

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility

Topic(s)

• MSCA-IF-2020 - Individual Fellowships

Call for proposal

H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

Coordinator

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA

Address

Via 8 Febbraio 2
35122 Padova
Italy

Activity type

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

EU contribution

€ 183 473,28