Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Milene Bonte and her team at the MBIC Brain & Language lab use behavioural, EEG and (f)MRI measures as well as gamification to understand and predict individual differences in language and reading development.

Children show large individual  differences in their reading development,  with one in twenty children facing reading problems due to  dyslexia. Additionally, a large group of children experience milder reading problems. Reading problems are currently diagnosed after a child has repeatedly failed to respond adequately to reading instruction. This usually happens around the age of 8–9, by which time the problems have already accumulated. This can also impact a child’s self-belief and motivation.

In ongoing projects like Project Leeswinst & Project Leeskans we aim to improve the early prediction of reading problems so that in the future, all children can receive the right support from the very start of learning to read. This research is performed in close collaboration with professionals in education and dyslexia healthcare (e.g., Rudolf Berlin Center, RID).

The Early Language Development research line at the MBIC Brain & Language lab focuses on language development in infants and children, investigating how language is processed in the developing brain. We examine the neural and cognitive mechanisms that underlie children’s ability to understand and use language, and how these processes differ across individuals.

Language in everyday interactions is inherently multimodal. Speech is often accompanied by visual and social cues such as lip movements, facial expressions, and hand gestures, which can support comprehension in noisy environments and during early language learning. We study how the brain integrates auditory, visual, and social information, and how these processes relate to later outcomes in language and reading. By combining neuroimaging methods such as EEG with behavioural measures, we investigate individual differences in language processing from infancy and how these differences shape early language acquisition and reading development, providing insight into early predictors of language and reading difficulties.

Mental health problems often emerge during development, yet the brain mechanisms underlying vulnerability or resilience remain insufficiently understood. The Neurocognitive Development and Mental Health research line investigates the fundamental neurocognitive processes that shape mental health trajectories across the lifespan. 

We combine experimental neuroscience with clinical research to examine how core systems, such as sensory responsivity, memory, and cognitive control, interact over time to influence adaptive and maladaptive outcomes. Using non-invasive neuroimaging, primarily Electroencephalography (EEG), in combination with behavioural paradigms and validated clinical and self-report measures, we capture the fine-grained temporal dynamics of neural information processing. Through Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), time-frequency analyses, and functional connectivity approaches, we characterise how brain networks develop and reorganise from childhood into adulthood, giving rise to individual differences in cognition and behaviour.

A central aim of our work is to move beyond symptom-based classification toward transdiagnostic, dimensional models of mental health. By applying identical experimental frameworks across typically developing and clinical populations, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia, we identify neurocognitive mechanisms that explain heterogeneity within and across diagnoses. Rather than treating disorders as fixed categories, we focus on processes that cut across traditional diagnostic boundaries. 

Our long-term goal is to translate these insights into objective neurobiological markers that support early risk detection and stratification of vulnerability. By linking sensory and cognitive systems to developmental trajectories, we aim to inform prevention and intervention strategies tailored to individual neurocognitive profiles. 

Ultimately, this research line advances a developmental, mechanism-based framework of mental health that supports earlier identification of risk and contributes to more effective, individualised care.

Current Research Themes

• Sensory Processing Dynamics
  Examining how individual differences in sensory sensitivity and information processing shape neurodevelopmental pathways and confer vulnerability or resilience.
• Neurobiological Markers of Vulnerability
  Identifying and validating objective (neuro)cognitive indicators for early detection and biologically informed characterisation of mental health risk.
• Mechanistic Modelling
  Developing integrative and computational frameworks that link sensory and cognitive processes to symptom dimensions and broader mental health outcomes, advancing predictive and personalised models of care.

Temperament, the early emerging and enduring differences in children’s behavioural style, is strongly associated with socioemotional outcomes throughout development. This research line aims to examine how temperament and cognition interact. With a focus on temperamental shyness and its relation to social anxiety, we aim to examine how the physiological reactivity associated with shyness modulates emerging cognitive control functions that attempt to mitigate the effects of this reactivity. To investigate these associations we make use of both behavioural (computer tasks, eye-tracking) and neurophysiological (EEG) methods.

Reading involves the language network in our brain, consisting of several subnetworks. The networks transfer perceptual information of written text to the frontal lobe for understanding and prediction of what comes next. Most research focused on word-by-word reading. We use a combination of eye tracking and EEG to study natural reading. Our project EYEread contributes to the understanding of the underlying neural dynamics. We address two specific topics:

(1) Context effects. We read differently depending on text context, but how? Our volunteers read different sorts of text, i.e. with or without prior knowledge of story content. We collect and study their EEG and eye reading patterns and see how context has impact on fixation trajectories, reading demand (pupil size), and text recall.

(2) Event segmentation. When we read we snip a story into chunks of meaning and store them, so that we can later recall in chunks. In memory research, this snipping is called event segmentation. Recent fMRI and EEG studies showed how the brain does this segmentation while people were listening to audiobooks or watching movies – with the help of machine-learning techniques such as Hidden-Markov-Modelling (HMM). Our project aims to apply HMM in natural reading.

Interested? 📧 b.jansma@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Galactosemia is a rare genetic metabolic disorder that affects a child’s ability to metabolise the sugar galactose properly. Children are screened for this disease at birth and receive a strict diet. Still, they develop some motor and cognitive issues over time. Since 2011, in an interdisciplinary team, we aim to understand these deficits by means of brain imaging.

In the project GaltACS (2019-23), we recorded EEG while volunteers named short video clips, to investigate language production. We detected differences in theta oscillation (3-7 Hz) between patients and healthy controls. Theta is relevant for language and memory.

In a next step, we studied the causal relation of language and theta. We stimulated the brain of our volunteers while they described the animated scenes. We used noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS), called transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). Afterwards, we compared language performance pre/during/post stimulation sessions and observed a significant reduction of naming errors in patients by theta stimulation, not by sham (placebo stimulation). This pilot study is promising and might indicate a new and additional treatment approach to improve cognition and life quality of the patients. We are currenty looking for follow-up funding. 

Interested? 📧 b.jansma@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Young children and individuals with attention problems often experience difficulties resisting distraction from irrelevant information, which can lead to impulsive behaviour, less efficient information processing, and ultimately lower academic achievement. Working memory capacity and executive control play a central role in attention and learning processes. Our research examines how executive control, working memory, and attention interact in typical and atypical cognitive development. Current projects focus on the development of mind wandering, emotional control, and the mechanisms through which young children learn to attach numerical meaning to number symbols. Using cross-sectional, longitudinal, and training study designs in combination with EEG/ERP methods, we investigate the cognitive processes and neural networks underlying attention and numerical processing across development.

Babies are born with very limited motor abilities, barely being able to lift up their own head. However, within less than two years, they acquire the ability to sit, reach, crawl, walk and talk. Meanwhile, their bodies are growing and their sensory systems are developing. How (young) children acquire and refine their motor abilities is the focus of this research line. This is investigated using computational models fitting and simulating behavioural and neuroscientific measures of infants, toddlers, children and adults. Topics include but are not limited to: sensorimotor learning and performance, multisensory integration and recalibration.