Olga Kepinska

The prenatal period represents a critical window in which key neural structures and functions are shaped, laying the foundation for sensory processing, language learning, and cognitive function throughout an individual’s lifetime. While research recognizes the importance of prenatal auditory and language stimulation, it is unclear whether and to what degree the language environment in utero shapes the fetal brain and language acquisition after birth. This project focuses on the prenatal language environment and its effects on neural plasticity and language development. We are adopting a longitudinal approach combining developmental cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, and information theory, using both novel and existing data.

Given the diversity of speech sounds across languages, multilingualism provides an excellent framework for studying environmental effects on early learning in typical development. DiverseSounds investigates input-driven neuroplasticity of fetal brain organization, assesses which characteristics of speech are processed by human fetuses, aims at determining fetal neural predictors of inter-individual differences in speech sound perception in early infancy, and investigates if fetal neuroplasticity longitudinally predicts language learning mechanisms in infancy.

We use state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques (both MRI and EEG) in monolinguals and multilinguals, and novel measures of phonological diversity informed by descriptive and typological linguistic work. In doing so, we examine the relationship between prenatal experience and subsequent developmental trajectories of language acquisition from 25 weeks of gestation to 6 months of age.

This research will advance our understanding of fetal and infant development and therefore bears significant implications for theory building, language therapy, and public health policy.