Kraus, N. .
Northwestern University
Our brains are changing all the time. Everything we do leaves an imprint-sometimes fleeting, sometimes permanent. In this talk, I am focusing on how our lives in sound shape the brain. When we hear a sound, an interconnected network of sensory, cognitive and reward centers are activated, and each center influences the others. We are able to gauge the influence of sound on this integrated, distributed network through our probe of auditory processing. With it, we can observe how the learning brain is influenced by expertise with sound-as in the case of bilinguals and musicians. And how it is influenced by language and reading disorders. By assessing the impact of auditory learning on sound processing in the brain, we can predict future literacy in preschool children, can substantiate the neural effects of linguistic deprivation in poverty, and can document the advantages imparted by playing music. Through the lens of the auditory system, we are discovering the brain impact of the tug of war between enrichment and deprivation.