Email: 
zhaotc@uw.edu
Lab for Early Auditory Perception
Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences
1715 NE Columbia Rd, Portage Bay Building
Office: 
Eagleson 102
Box: 
357988
Research Areas: 
Speech Development, Perception & Production
Auditory Perception
Auditory Development in Infants & Children
Auditory Attention & Neuroscience
Language Development & Disorders in Children
Cognitive Neuroimaging

Christina
 
Zhao
,
PhD

Research Assistant Professor
Adjunct Research Assistant Professor in Linguistics
Adjunct Research Assistant Professor in Psychology
Education: 
Ph.D. (2015) Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington
B.S. (2010) Psychology Department, Pacific Lutheran University
Courses Taught: 
SPHSC 594 CAPTURING BRAIN DYNAMICS: A COMBINED NEUROSCIENCE AND ENGINEERING APPROACH

Recent Publications

2024

Cheng, T. Z., & Zhao, T. C. (2024). Validating a novel paradigm for simultaneously assessing mismatch response and frequency-following response to speech sounds. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 412: 110277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneumeth.2024.110277 (PDF)

Hippe, L., Hennessy, V., Ramirez, N. F., & Zhao, T. C. (2024). Comparison of speech and music input in North American infants’ home environment over the first 2 years of life. Developmental Science, e13528. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/desc.13528. (PDF)

Endevelt-Shapira, Y., Bosseler, A. N., Zhao, T. C., Mizrahi, J. C., Meltzoff, A. N., & Kuhl, P. K. (2024). Heart-to-heart: infant heart rate at 3 months is linked to infant-directed speech, mother-infant interaction, and later language outcomes. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 18: 1380075. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2024.1380075/full. (PDF)

2023

Beguš, G., Zhou, A. & Zhao, T.C. Encoding of speech in convolutional layers and the brain stem based on language experience. Sci Rep 13, 6480 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33384-9. (PDF) 

2022

Corrigan, N. M., Yarnykh, V. L., Huber, E., Zhao, T. C. & Kuhl, P. K. Brain Myelination at 7 Months of Age Predicts Later Language Development. NeuroImage, 263: 119641. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119641. (PDF)

Zhao, T. C., Corrigan, N. M., Yarnykh, V. L. & Kuhl, P. K. Development of executive function-related skill is related to both neural structure and function in infants. Developmental Science, 00, e13323. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13323. (PDF)

Zhao, T. C., Llanos, F., Chandrasekaran, B., & Kuhl, P. K. (2022). Language experience during the period narrows infants’ sensory encoding of lexical tones—Music intervention reverses it. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.941853. (PDF)

Llanos, F., Zhao, T. C., Kuhl, P. K., & Chandrasekaran, B. (2022). The emergence of idiosyncratic patterns in the frequency-following response during the first year of life. JASA Express Letters 2(5): 054401. https://asa.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1121/10.0010493. (PDF)

Zhao, T. C., & Kuhl, P. K. (2022). Development of speech processing and its relation to later language development: an MEG study. Neuroimage 256, 119242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119242. (PDF)

Zhao, T. C. (2022). Neural-behavioral relation in phonetic discrimination modulated by language background. Brain Sciences 12(4): 461. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12040461. (PDF)

2021

Polka, L., Molnar, M., Zhao, T. C., & Masapollo, M. (2021). Neurophysiological Correlates of Asymmetries in Vowel Perception: An English-French Cross-Linguistic Event-Related Potential Study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 15 (274). http://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.607148. (PDF)

Zhao, T. C., Boorom, O., Kuhl, P. K., & Gordon, R. (2021). Infants’ neural speech discrimination predicts individual differences in grammar ability at 6 years of age and their risk of developing speech-language disorders. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100949. (PDF)

Corrigan, N., Yarnykh, V., Hippe, D., Owens, J., Zhao, T. C., & Kuhl, P. K. (2021). Gray matter myelination as a significant component of brain maturation during adolescence. NeuroImage, 227:117678. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117678. (PDF)