A joint laboratory established by National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) and US-based Haskins Laboratories was inaugurated in Taipei yesterday, with academics from the two sides set to work together on the learning mechanism of infants.
A delegation led by Kenneth Pugh, president and director of research at Haskins Laboratories, signed a memorandum of understanding with NTNU a day earlier to establish the NTNU-Haskins Joint Laboratory of Brain Development and Learning.
NTNU chair professor Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗), a Haskins Laboratories board member since 2015, told a press conference that one of the institute’s current focuses is the use of functional near-
infrared spectroscopy systems in the research of language and reading development in infants.
The system is a non-invasive optical imaging technique that measures changes in hemoglobin concentrations within the brain by means of the characteristic absorption spectra of hemoglobin in the near-infrared range.
Human learning capability peaks in infancy, Haskins Laboratories senior researcher Richard Aslin said.
Aslin said he discovered years ago that infants have the ability to rapidly extract rules hidden in information, adding that this ability is perfect for learning languages.
Aslin is working with NTNU on a research project with six-month-old Taiwanese as subjects.
The project aims to study the learning mechanism in the human brain as it relates to cross-sense stimulus links and prediction, he said.
Initial research shows that six-month-olds can learn the connection between objects and sounds within one minute, said Aslin, who described babies as super-powerful learning machines.
The NTNU-Haskins joint laboratory will continue to explore the early physical signs of infants’ cognitive ability and to determine methods that can help children who suffer from autism and language development disorders, he said.
Founded in 1935, Haskins Laboratories is a private, non-profit research institute with a primary focus on speech, language and reading, and their biological basis.
The New Haven, Connecticut-based lab has long-standing, formal affiliations with the University of Connecticut and Yale University, NTNU said.
The university introduced Pugh to reporters as one of the scientists who initiated the application of functional magnetic resonance imaging to the research of reading and reading disabilities.
Pugh has also undertaken a lot of research in the areas of cognitive neurology and psycholinguistics, NTNU said.
Accompanying Pugh on his visit to Taiwan are Joseph Cardone, vice president of finance at Haskins Laboratories, and Heikki Lyytinen, a professor at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland and chair of Inclusive Literacy Learning for UNESCO.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but