Language and brain rhythms
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 the temporal structure, or rhythm, of speech signals. Exposure to native language rhythms has been shown to strongly constrain the ability to understand and learn other languages. Yet, a comprehensive view of the processing of speech rhythms from a neural standpoint is still lacking. The LaBRhythms project will investigate the hypothesis that neural oscillations are instrumental in the processing of language-specific speech rhythms, and for the communication of speech information across brain areas. To test this, I will develop novel neuroimaging tools for analyses that will increase the spatial resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG) to an unprecedented level, allowing for observation of neural oscillations at the laminar level in human data. The project will provide both strong theoretical and methodological advances. First, it will give new insights into the brain mechanisms of complex temporal information processing in speech. It aims in particular at reconciling the linguistic approaches in the study of speech rhythms, which emphasize the cross-linguistic variability in temporal information, with the prevailing neurophysiological framework of speech processing that for now only focused on the periodicities in the speech signal. Second, it will generate new tools for laminar MEG analysis. These tools will permit the investigation of theoretical questions on the communication between brain areas that could not be answered otherwise. For this project, I will benefit from the strong expertise of the Centre de Recherche en Neuroscience de Lyon (CRNL) in neuroimaging and neural oscillations research, where I will specifically receive training in technical and team-leadership skills, providing an ideal setting to perform cutting-edge research and grow as an independent researcher.