Objective Measures of Functional Connectivity to Investigate Language Development in Infants

As infants learn to speak by listening to sounds, infants with hearing loss can experience language delays due to auditory deprivation. This delay can significantly reduce the quality of life in infants with hearing impairment. The main aim of this research was to understand the typical development and underlying functional mechanisms of brain language networks in normal hearing infants using non-invasive, infant-friendly optical brain imaging technique called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Importantly, we hope that findings of this research could serve as a reference point to better understand how auditory deprivation affects language development in infants with hearing impairment.