Abstract

Children's ability to extract statistical regularities from speech is considered fundamental to lexical, syntactic, and grammatical development. However, the neural oscillatory mechanisms supporting this process in childhood remains poorly understood. While beta-band oscillations have been linked to statistical learning in visual and motor domains, it is unclear whether similar dynamics support auditory statistical learning in children. In this study, we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) from children aged 8–12 years as they listened to a continuous stream of trisyllabic nonwords (e.g., dapiku), where syllable order within each nonword was fixed (high predictability), but transitions between nonwords were variable (low predictability). Beta power was significantly lower for the more predictable second and third syllables relative to the less predictable first syllable. This effect emerged only after repeated exposure and was localised to left prefrontal electrodes. Beta power also correlated with post-exposure recognition accuracy. Additional learning-related modulations were observed in the theta-alpha and delta-theta bands, suggesting broader oscillatory engagement. These findings indicate that auditory statistical learning in middle childhood engages frequency-specific neural dynamics, with beta power modulations showing parallel effects to those observed in other modalities.

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

1-1-2026

Volume

194

PubMed ID

41330012

Publication Title

Cortex

Publisher

Elsevier

School

School of Arts and Humanities

RAS ID

84613

Funders

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grants

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Comments

Lum, J. A., Moreau, C. N., Leow, L., Marinovic, W., Lum, S. J., Joanisse, M. F., & Batterink, L. J. (2025). Beta-band modulation reveals the cortical dynamics of auditory statistical learning in children. Cortex, 194, 35–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2025.11.003

First Page

35

Last Page

49

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1016/j.cortex.2025.11.003