Perception of Temporal Regularity in Tactile Stimulation: a Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy Study in Preterm Neonates

A key function of our brain is to identify temporal structures in the environment and use them to form expectations. These expectations allow us to plan and organize our behavior towards changes in the environment, and optimize the use of our attentional and motor resources. They also allow us to establish harmonious social interactions, coordinating us with our interlocutor during an exchange. Our ability to form temporal expectations seems to emerge very early but the development of this process is unknown. We only know that a set of basic skills, probably related to that ability, are present from birth. This suggests that temporal processing capabilities emerge during the prenatal period, but this has not been studied. The objective of this project is to study preterm infants brain's ability to process the intervals between stimuli and to form expectations on that basis.