Biology subjects

Benis, D.

Publications and source records attributed to Benis, D..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

The origins of time: a systematic review of the neural signatures of temporal prediction in infancy

From birth, individuals interpersonal dimension is underpinned by progressive learning of social interaction rules, their variations rooted in the temporal prediction of sensory events, and the inferences made about the organization of the social world. How this dimension is progressively structured during infancy and articulated at the neural level is a critical question for cognitive and affective neurosciences. This systematic review aims to define the neural signatures of temporal prediction in newborns and infants and to discuss them in the context of the development of proximal cognitive and affective neural functions. Eight peer-reviewed studies were included, with 228 infants from birth to 9 months of age. Studies have shown that the neural signatures of temporal prediction in infants exhibit a broad cerebral localization, including the anterior and medial parts of the brain, particularly in the frontal and central areas. Temporal prediction mechanisms emerge before birth and range from early sensory-driven responses to more complex top-down processes within the first year of life. While current data do not support a clear longitudinal interpretation, these abilities appear to be shaped by both biological predispositions and experiential factors, with interactive rhythmic and musical activities potentially contributing to their development.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Maternal singing synchronizes the preterm infants' brain

Singing to infants is a universal human practice that has beneficial effects on infants cognitive and affective development. Children born preterm have impaired brain development, and their perception of maternal speech is known to be affected by the atypical hospital auditory environment. Understanding how preterm infants perceive maternal singing is of critical importance, yet it remains largely unexplored. Using high-density EEG, we examined neural responses to the same melody presented through maternal singing, stranger singing, and instrument, and compared the responses in 12 preterm infants. Moreover, to examine their processing of spatialisation, auditory stimuli were presented under monaural and binaural conditions. Preterm newborns are able to discriminate the same melody when sung by their mother, a stranger, or played by an instrument. When presented monaurally, the mothers singing voice enhances widespread brain synchrony across the entire scalp. In contrast, this synchrony diminishes with binaural spatialization. These findings suggest that maternal singing constitutes a highly salient auditory stimulus for preterm newborns, eliciting a distinct neural signature. Given that brain synchrony is a critical component of healthy brain function and development, harnessing maternal singing may offer a promising, natural intervention to support neurodevelopment--particularly in vulnerable populations such as preterm infants.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Cardiorespiratory mechanisms triggered during music perception in preterm infants and adults

SHORT-ABSTRACTPreterm newborns autonomic response to dynamic auditory stimuli is poorly understood. To examine how cardiac and respiratory systems adjust their rhythms in response to music, we assessed 18 preterm infants (gestational age 37.73 {+/-} 0.80 weeks) and 19 adults across music listening. Heart rate variability (HRV) dynamics and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and cardiorespiratory coupling were analyzed. Both groups showed decreased high-frequency power in HRV during music listening. In preterm infants, RSA increased (p-value = 0.005), possibly suggesting a state of calm alertness, where the infant is physiologically prepared for interaction with environmental stimuli, while adults had decreased RSA (p-value = 0.003) and concomitant increased values of the low frequency/high frequency power ratio, possibly reflecting heightened alertness. While HRV responses to music were similar between preterms and adults, only the investigation of RSA and cardiorespiratory coupling measures revealed the delicate balance of autonomic dynamics in preterm newborns.

physiology↗

bioRxiv2025

Neural dynamics of induced vocal tract vibrations during vocal emotion recognition

Despite a large corpus of literature in psychological and brain mechanisms on emotional prosody perception, the perspective of embodied cognition in these mechanisms have been largely neglected. Here we investigated the influence of induced bodily vibrations on the categorization of ambiguous emotional vocalizations using event-related potentials (ERPs). Emotional voices were morphed between a fearful expression with the speakers identity-matching angry expression, creating blends of emotions in each voice. Emotional congruent and incongruent vibrations were delivered on the skin close to the vocal cords. Congruent with our hypotheses, behavioural results revealed that induced vibrations skewed the participants emotional ratings by biasing responses towards the vibrations emotion. ERPs indicated that N100 and P200 components subtending the early processing of emotional prosody were significantly modulated by induced vibrations in the congruent setting, considered as a facilitation effect for emotion recognition at early stages of processing. A modulation of the late positive component was also observed in the incongruent setting, suggesting an error processing mechanism. Source reconstruction highlighted effects of vibration types in prefrontal, motor, somatosensory, and insular cortices. Our results suggest that voice-associated vibrations may play a significant role in vocal emotion processing and recognition through an embodied mechanism.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Preterm infants voice processing is mediated by voice familiarity

To understand the consequences of prematurity on language perception it is fundamental to determine how atypical early sensory experience affects brain development. To date the neural oscillatory correlates in the time-frequency domain of voice processing as a function of atypical early sensory experience, as after premature birth, remain elusive. At term equivalent age, ten preterm and ten full-term newborns underwent high-density EEG recordings during mother or stranger speech presentation, presented in the forward (naturalistic) or backward order. A general group effect terms > preterms for the naturalistic mothers voice is evident in the theta frequency band in the left temporal area, where only full-term newborns showed an increased activity for the mothers voice, whereas preterm infants showed significant activation for stranger naturalistic speech. Similarly, a significant group contrast in the low and high theta in the right temporal regions indicates higher activations for the strangers speech in preterms. Finally, only full-term newborns presented a late gamma band increase for the maternal naturalistic speech, indicating a more mature brain response. The current study based on neural time-frequency patterns, demonstrates that preterm infants lack selective brain responses to mothers naturalistic voice typical for full-term newborns, whereas preterms are selectively responsive to stranger voices in both temporal hemispheres.

neuroscience↗