Rhythms are omnipresent in social interactions, natural events, and temporal sequences. Humans characteristically respond to external rhythms with synchronization, which can be observed across multiple levels of analysis (e.g., behavior, brain and physiology). Given the ubiquitous nature of rhythms, utilizing rhythmic stimulation to characterize development has been beneficial in many domains, including, but not limited to, cognition, perception and motor functioning.

Across analysis levels, rhythmic responses are often conceived as entrainment of endogenous oscillators to external rhythms. As it can be difficult to distinguish between entrainment of endogenous oscillations on the one hand and sequential evoked responses on the other hand, we adopt a broad definition of entrainment as responses elicited by a corresponding external driving rhythm, and welcome diverse studies dealing with responses to rhythmic stimulation in developmental populations.

This Research Topic thus aims at assembling work from various fields, including motor control, interaction and interpersonal synchrony, and perception of speech, music, and visual or auditory stimulation, focusing on research measuring entrainment and/or using rhythmic stimulation. What are the effects of rhythmic stimulation across domains? How do responses to rhythms change with development? And how can rhythms be utilized to advance our knowledge of developmental functions across brain, behavior and physiology? Assembling views and data across fields holds the potential for broadening our understanding of the development of rhythmic processes, and for improving methods employing rhythmic stimulation. Ultimately, this may help us to develop a more comprehensive picture of commonalities and discrepancies in the development of behavior and processing in a variety of domains.

We solicit contributions from any theoretical background addressing responses to rhythmic stimulation in any modality, and at all levels of analysis. In addition to work with infants, children and youth, studies with adults are welcome if they specifically address developmental processes. By spanning a broad range of methods and developmental domains, we endeavor to encourage dialogues between researchers from various backgrounds and uncover similarities across fields.

We welcome submissions addressing the following topics:

• Theoretical discussions on entrainment/synchronization responses and mechanisms of developmental change.

• Research on responses to rhythmic stimulation in developmental populations.

• Studies addressing entrainment (and its underlying mechanisms) throughout development.

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Frontiers in Psychology

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