, 2000 and Rodriguez et al., 1999). The instantaneous phase of EEG signals was extracted by using the same wavelet transform procedure as in 2.5.1, with which EEG signal s  (t  ) was convolved. We computed the instantaneous phase ϕnϕn of EEG signal from electrode n by deriving the argument of the convolved signal: expiϕt,f=wt,f*snt/|wt,f*snt|.expiϕt,f=wt,f*snt/|wt,f*snt|. Finally, we computed the PLV   to estimate the degree of phase synchronization between EEG phase signals as, PLV(t)=1M|∑m=1Mexp(iθ(t,m))|,where θt,m=ϕ1t,m−ϕ2t,mθt,m=ϕ1t,m−ϕ2t,m,

ϕ1ϕ1 and ϕ2ϕ2 are the instantaneous phases of EEG time series from electrodes 1 and 2 at time t for the m-th trial ( Lachaux et al., 2000 and Rodriguez et al., BKM120 supplier 1999). M is the total number of epochs included in the calculation. The resulting PLV takes a value between 0 (random phase difference, no phase synchronization) and 1 (constant phase difference, perfect phase synchronization). To detect auditory event-related

changes in synchrony, we standardized the PLV relative to the pre-stimulus baseline period (600 msec–100 msec before the visual onset) for each electrode pair and frequency. Standardized PLV values for each time point t, PLVz(t) ( Rodriguez et al., 1999), were computed as follows: PLVz(t)=PLV(t)−PLVBmeanPLVBsdwhere BLZ945 PLVBmean and PLVBsd are, respectively, the mean and standard deviation of the PLVs computed from the baseline period at each frequency. The resulting index, PLVz, indicates standardized changes in the direction of increased synchronization (positive values) or decreased synchronization (negative values). The EEG signal was re-filtered off-line with a zero phase shift digital band-pass filter ranging from .3 to 30 Hz, and re-referenced to the average of left and right mastoid channels (A1, A2). Artifact rejection was performed automatically by rejecting trials with a potential exceeding ±200 μV. There was a minimum of 21 valid epochs per condition

in every infant participant (mean: 47.6 epochs in the match condition and 46.7 epochs in the mismatch condition). Epochs ranged from −950 to 1000 msec after the auditory onset and baseline correction was applied in crotamiton the interval −950 to −550 msec (i.e., from 400 to 0 msec before the onset of the visual stimulus). We calculated mean amplitudes within a time window of 350–550 msec after the auditory onset over the central regions of the scalp (i.e., C3, Cz, and C4) to evaluate the N400 effect. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (two sound-symbolic matching conditions × three electrodes) on the mean amplitudes in the time-window was conducted. We computed AMPz on an individual basis. The statistical group analyses were performed on AMPz time-frequency diagrams.