Schedule of Events | Symposia

Infants at familial risk for DLD, ADHD, or ASD show enhanced rapid auditory processing as a function of interactive acoustic experiences.

Poster Session E - Monday, March 31, 2025, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Naseem Choudhury^1,2 (nchoudhu@ramapo.edu), Teresa Realpe-Bonilla², Cynthia Roesler², Laura Milovic², April Benasich²; ¹Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah, NJ, ²Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University- Newark, NJ

Infants’ ability to discriminate between auditory stimuli presented in rapid succession and differing in fundamental frequency (Rapid Auditory Processing [RAP] abilities) has been shown to be impaired in infants at familial risk for Developmental Language Disorders (DLD) as well as infants with a family history of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We have previously demonstrated that early interactive acoustic experience (IAE), starting at 4-months-of-age, with spectro-temporally modulated non-speech, significantly enhances processing of key pre-linguistic acoustic cues, generalizes to novel non-speech stimuli, and promotes fine tuning of early acoustic mapping in typically developing infants. In this study, 27 typically developing infants (AFH-) and 25 infants with a familial history of DLD, ADHD or ASD (AFH+) received non-speech IAE once a week for 6 weeks from 4.5-6 months of age. At 7-month post-test, dEEG/ERP was recorded while infants listened to 70-ms-long complex tones using an oddball paradigm and a blocked design; interstimulus intervals (ISIs) were 70 or 300ms. Age-matched naive controls (NC), (N=22) were also tested at 7 months. Compared to NC, both AFH+ and AFH- groups showed more efficient processing of these stimuli as indicated by latency and amplitude of waveforms. Surprisingly, in group comparisons, the AFH+ group achieved the fastest latencies as compared to the other groups. Moreover, the N2* ERP component, an early marker for later language outcomes, was significantly enhanced for both active groups as compared to naïve controls. These results suggest that early IAE both accelerates and enhances the maturational trajectory of RAP processing critical for early language.

Topic Area: LANGUAGE: Development & aging