Individual differences in linguistic statistical learning and their relation to rhythmic ability

Humans need language for social exchanges. Individuals who struggle with language have an elevated risk of academic, emotional and social difficulties. Understanding inter-individual differences in language learning and use is, therefore, important. We relate these differences to variation in statistical learning ability: the ability to discover the statistical structure of a stimulus stream. This is one of the fundamental processes by which the brain gets hold of patterns in the world. We propose that this statistical learning ability, in turn, is connected to rhythmic ability. We test this hypothesis by investigating individual differences in statistical learning and their neural underpinnings using electroencephalography, to measure entrainment of neural activity to auditory input streams.