Co-development of face and speech processing in infancy

婴儿一出生就遇到的最重要的社会刺激是面孔。这样的脸不仅会动，还会说话。从移动和说话的面孔中处理信息的能力为典型的发展奠定了至关重要的基础，而早期无法做到这一点会导致一连串的负面后果（例如，自闭症）。尽管研究人员广泛地研究了婴儿时期面部处理和语言处理的发展，但很少有人研究两者之间的相互作用。以我们最近的发现为基础，提出的研究计划旨在弥合这一重大的知识鸿沟。我们将系统地研究婴儿对面部处理的学习如何影响他们对言语处理的学习，反之亦然，以及面部和语言经验在形成这种共同发展中的作用。为此，我们将采用多方法的方法，通过使用习惯化-非习惯化，眼动追踪和功能近红外光谱方法。我们将评估不同接触过不同种族和语言面孔的婴儿区分自己和其他种族面孔以及母语和非母语语音的能力。这项研究将首次提供一套系统的、多层次的数据，将婴儿在面部和语言处理过程中的行为表现、视觉扫描和神经活动联系起来。我们的研究结果将在行为和神经水平上填补关于面部和语言感知早期共同发展的知识空白。他们将阐明两个知觉领域之间发展相互作用的本质，以及不同经验在塑造早期跨模态发展中的作用。我们的研究也将为未来的研究奠定基础，将早期的面部差异和语言经验与整个儿童时期的后期发展联系起来。此外，我们的研究将为理解面部和语言处理的非典型共同发展（如自闭症）提供规范性数据。

The most important social stimuli infants encounter as soon as they are born are faces. Such faces not only move but also talk. The ability to process information from moving and talking faces lay the crucial foundation for typical development, whereas early inability to do so leads to cascading negative consequences (e.g., autism). Whereas researchers have extensively studied the development of face processing and that of speech processing in infancy, few have examined the interaction between the two. Building on our recent discoveries, the proposed program of research aims to bridge this significant gap in knowledge. We will examine systematically how infants' learning of face processing affects their learning of speech processing and vice versa, as well as the role of face and language experience in shaping such co-development. To this end, we will take a multi-method approach by using habituation-dishabituation, eye tracking, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy methodologies. We will assess the abilities to discriminate own- vs. other-race faces and native vs. non-native speech sounds in infants with differential exposures to the faces of different races and languages. This research will provide, for the first time, a systematic and multi-level set of data to link behavioural performance to visual scanning to neural activities in infants during face and speech processing. Our findings will bridge a significant gap in knowledge regarding the early co-development of face and speech perception at the behavioural and neural levels. They will elucidate the nature of developmental interaction between the two perceptual domains and the role of differential experiences in shaping early cross-modal development. Our research will also lay the foundation for future research to link early differential face and language experiences to later developments throughout childhood. Further, our research will provide normative data for understanding the atypical co-development of face and speech processing (e.g., autism).