Articles and Chapters

[pdf] Navarathna, N., Novi, S. L., Uddin, S., Fong, D. C., Bortfeld, H., & Isaiah, A. (2025). Assessing executive function in pediatric sleep‐disordered breathing using functional neuroimaging. Otolaryngology–head and neck surgery : official journal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, 10.1002/ohn.1351.

[pdf] O’Connell, S. R., Rahimpour Jounghani, A., Papadopoulos, J. M., Bortfeld, H., & Goldsworthy, R. L. (2025). Investigating Hemodynamic Patterns During Beat Processing in Cochlear Implant Users: Insights from a Finger Tapping Study. Auditory Perception & Cognition, 1-25.

[pdf] Rahimpour Jounghani, A., Backer, K. C., Vahid, A., Comstock, D. C., Zamani, J., Hosseini, H., Balasubramaniam, R., Heather Bortfeld, H. (2025). Investigating the role of auditory cues in modulating motor timing: insights from EEG and deep learning. Cerebral Cortex, 34(10), bhae427.

[pdf] Singh, L., & Bortfeld, H. (2024). Towards a global developmental science. Developmental Science, 27(5), e13555.

[pdf] Casper, R., Aguirre-Muñoz, Z., Spivey, M., Bortfeld, H. (2024). Spanish–English bilingual heritage speakers processing of inanimate sentences. Frontiers in Language Sciences, 3, 1370569.

[pdf] Isaiah, A., Teplitzky, T. B., Dontu, P., Saini, S., Som, M., Pereira, K. D., & Bortfeld, H. (2023). Resting‐State Cerebral Hemodynamics is Associated With Problem Behaviors in Pediatric Sleep‐Disordered Breathing. Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, 169(5), 1290-1298.

[pdf] Santoyo, A. E., Gonzales, M. G., Iqbal, Z. J., Backer, K. C., Balasubramaniam, R., Bortfeld, H., & Shahin, A. J. (2023). Neurophysiological time course of timbre-induced music-like perception. Journal of Neurophysiology, 130(2), 291-302.

[pdf] Mehr, S. A., & Bortfeld, H. (2023). Music, a piece of many puzzles in developmental science. Developmental Science, 26(5), e13438.

[pdf] Rahimpour Jounghani, A., Lanka, P., Pollonini, L., Proksch, S., Balasubramaniam, R., & Bortfeld, H. (2023). Multiple levels of contextual influence on action-based timing behavior and cortical activation. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 7154.

[pdf] Iqbal, Z. J., Shahin, A. J., Bortfeld, H., & Backer, K. C. (2023). The McGurk illusion: A default mechanism of the auditory system. Brain Sciences, 13(3), 510.

[pdf] Ayaz, H., Baker, W. B., Blaney, G., Boas, D. A., Bortfeld, H., Brady, K., Brake, J., Brigadoi, S., Buckley, E. M., Carp, S. A., Cooper, R. J., Cowdrick, K. R., Culver, J. P., Dan, I., Dehghani, H., Devor, A., Durduran, T., Eggebrecht, A. T., Emberson, L. L., Fang, Q., … Zhou, W. (2022). Optical imaging and spectroscopy for the study of the human brain: status report. Neurophotonics, 9(Suppl 2), S24001.

[pdf] Lanka, P., Bortfeld, H., & Huppert, T. J. (2022). Correction of global physiology in resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Neurophotonics, 9(3).

[pdf] Oghalai, J. S., Bortfeld, H., Feldman, H. M., Chimalakonda, N., Emery, C., Choi, J. S., & Zhou, S. (2022). Cochlear implants for deaf children with early developmental impairment. Pediatrics, 149(6).

[pdf] Gonzales, M. G., Backer, K. C., Yan, Y., Miller, L. M., Bortfeld, H., & Shahin, A. J. (2022). Audition controls the flow of visual time during multisensory perception. IScience, 25(7).

[pdf] Bortfeld, H., & Gabouer, A. (2021). Infant communication (chapter 15). In A. Vangelisti (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Family Communication (3rd Edition). Routledge.

[pdf] Gabouer, A., & Bortfeld, H. (2021). Revisiting how we operationalize joint attention. Infant Behavior and Development, 63, 101566.

[pdf] Backer, K. C., & Bortfeld, H. (2021). Characterizing bilingual effects on cognition: The search for meaningful individual differences. Brain Sciences, 11(1), 81. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11010081

[pdf] Shen, S., Kerlin, J. R., Bortfeld, H., & Shahin, A. J. (2020). The cross-modal suppressive role of visual context on speech intelligibility: An ERP study. Brain Sciences, 10(11), 810. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10110810

[pdf] Rahimpour, A., Pollonini, L., Comstock, D., Balasubramaniam, R., & Bortfeld, H. (2020). Tracking differential activation of primary and supplementary motor cortex across timing tasks: An fNIRS validation study. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 341, 1-9.

[pdf] Gabouer, A., Oghalai, J., & Bortfeld, H. (2020). Parental use of multimodal cues in the initiation of joint attention as a function of child hearing status. Discourse Processes, 57, 491-506.

[link] Bortfeld, H. & Oghalai, J. (2020). Joint attention in hearing parent-deaf child and hearing parent-hearing child dyads. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems, 99, 243-249.

[pdf] Soderstrom, M. & Bortfeld, H. (2019). Prosody in infant- and child-directed speech. In C. Gussenhoven and A. Chen (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Language Prosody. Oxford University Press.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H. (2019). Functional near-infrared spectroscopy as a tool for assessing speech and spoken language processing in pediatric and adult cochlear implant users. Developmental Psychobiology, 61, 430-443.

[pdf] Hall, M., Eigsti, I.M., Bortfeld, H., & Lillo-Martin, D. (2018). Executive function in deaf children: Auditory access and language access. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61, 1970-1988.

[pdf] Gabouer, A., Oghalai, J., & Bortfeld, H. (2018). Hearing parents’ use of auditory, visual, and tactile cues as a function of child hearing status. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 31.

[pdf] Hall, M., Eigsti, I.M., Bortfeld, H., & Lillo-Martin, D. (2018). Auditory access, language access, and implicit sequence learning in deaf children. Developmental Science, 21, 1-12.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H. (2017). Is figurative language the final frontier, or a pit stop along the way? American Journal of Psychology, 130(2), 254-258.

[pdf] Hall, M., Eigsti, I.M., Bortfeld, H., & Lillo-Martin, D. (2017). Auditory deprivation does not impair executive function, but language deprivation might: evidence from a parent-report measure in deaf native signing children. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 22, 9-21.

[pdf] Mattys, S., & Bortfeld, H. (2016). Speech segmentation. In G. Gaskell, & J. Mirkovic (Eds.), Speech Perception and Spoken Word Recognition (pp. 55-75). Psychology Press.

[pdf] Pollonini, L., Bortfeld, H., & Oghalai, J.S. (2016). PHOEBE: a method for real time mapping of optodes-scalp coupling in functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Biomedical Optics Express, 7, 5104-5119.

[pdf] Saliba, J., Bortfeld, H., Levitin, D. J., & Oghalai, J. S. (2016). Functional near-infrared spectroscopy for neuroimaging in cochlear implant recipients. Hearing Research, 338, 64-75.

[pdf] Olds, C., Pollonini, L., Abaya, H., Larky, J., Loy, M., Bortfeld, H., Beauchamp, M., & Oghalai, J. (2016). Cortical activation patterns correlate with speech understanding after cochlear implantation. Ear & Hearing, 37, 160-172.

[pdf] Depowski, N., Abaya, H., Oghalai, J., & Bortfeld, H. (2015). Modality use in joint attention between hearing parents and deaf children. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1556.

[pdf] Shaw, K., Baart, M., Depowski, N., & Bortfeld, H. (2015). Infants’ preference for native audiovisual speech dissociated from congruency preference. PLoS ONE 10(4), 1-11: e0126059.

[pdf] Baart, M., Bortfeld, H., & Vroomen, J. (2015). Phonetic matching of auditory and visual speech develops during childhood: Evidence from sine-wave speech. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 129, 157-64.

[pdf] Shaw, K., & Bortfeld, H. (2015). Sources of confusion in infant audiovisual speech perception research. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1844.

[pdf] Fava, E., Hull, R., & Bortfeld, H. (2014). Dissociating cortical activity during processing of native and non-native audiovisual speech from early to late infancy. Brain Sciences, 4, 471-487.

[pdf] Baart, M., Vroomen, J., Shaw, K., & Bortfeld, H. (2014). Degrading phonetic information affects matching of audiovisual speech in adults, but not in infants. Cognition, 130, 31-43.

[pdf] Pollonini, L., Olds, C., Abaya, H., Bortfeld, H., Beauchamp, M., & Oghalai, J. (2014). Auditory cortex activation to natural speech and simulated cochlear implant speech measured with functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Hearing Research, 309, 84-93.

[pdf] Fava, E., Hull, R., Baumbauer, K., & Bortfeld, H. (2014). Hemodynamic responses to speech and music in preverbal infants. Child Neuropsychology, 20, 430-438.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H., Shaw, K., & Depowski, N. (2013). Disentangling the influence of salience and familiarity on infant word learning: methodological advances. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 1-10.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H., Shaw, K., & Depowski, N. (2012). The miracle year: From basic structure to social communication (pp. 153-171). In L. Gogate & G. Hollich (Eds.), Theoretical and Computational Models of Word Learning: Trends in Psychology and Artificial Intelligence. IGI Global.

[htm] Gruenbaum, B., Depowski, N., Shaw, K., & Bortfeld, H. (2012). Infant communication (pp. 224-255). In A. Vangelisti (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Family Communication. New York, NY: Routledge.

[pdf] Oghalai, J., Caudle, S., Bentley, B., Abaya, H., Lin, J., Baker, D., Emery, C., Bortfeld, H., & Winzelberg, J. (2012). Cognitive outcomes and familial stress after cochlear implantation in deaf children with and without developmental delays. Otology and Neurotology, 33, 947-956.

[pdf] Beauchamp, M., Beurlot, M., Fava, E., Nath, A., Parikh, N., Saad, Z., Bortfeld, H., & Oghalai, J. (2011). The developmental trajectory of brain-scalp distance from birth through childhood: implications for functional neuroimaging. PLoS One, 6, 9.

[pdf] Fava, E., Hull, R., & Bortfeld, H. (2011). Linking behavioral and neurophysiological indicators of perceptual tuning to language. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 174.

[pdf] Chen, H.C., Vaid, J., Boas, D. & Bortfeld, H. (2011). Examining the phonological neighborhood density effect using near-infrared spectroscopy. Human Brain Mapping, 32, 1363-1370.

[pdf] Sevy, A., Bortfeld, H., Huppert, T., Beauchamp, M., Tonini R., & Oghalai J. (2010). Neuroimaging with near-infrared spectroscopy demonstrates speech-evoked activity in the auditory cortex of deaf children following cochlear implantation. Hearing Research, 270, 39-47.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H. & Morgan, J. (2010). Is early word-form processing stress-full? How natural variability supports recognition. Cognitive Psychology, 60, 241-266.

[pdf] Felps, D., Bortfeld, H., & Gutiérrez-Osuna, R. (2009). Foreign accent conversion in computer assisted pronunciation training. Speech Communication, 51, 920-932.

[pdf] Rodríguez, J., Bortfeld, H., Rudomín, I., Hernández, B., & Gutiérrez-Osuna, R. (2009). The reverse-caricature effect revisited: Familiarization with frontal facial caricatures improves veridical face recognition. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23, 733-742.

[pdf] Hull, R., Bortfeld, H., & Koons, S. (2009). Near-infrared spectroscopy and cortical responses to speech production. The Open Neuroimaging Journal, 3, 26-30.

[pdf] Wilcox, T., Bortfeld, H., Woods, R., Wruck, E., Armstrong, J., & Boas, D. (2009). Hemodynamic changes in the infant cortex during the processing of featural and spatiotemporal information. Neuropsychologia, 47, 657-662.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H., Fava, E., & Boas, D. (2009). Identifying cortical lateralization of speech processing in infants using near-infrared spectroscopy. Developmental Neuropsychology, 34, 52-65.

[pdf] Singh, L., Nestor, S., & Bortfeld, H. (2008). Overcoming the effects of variation in infant speech segmentation: Influences of word familiarity. Infancy, 13, 57-74.

[pdf] Wilcox, T., Bortfeld, H., Woods, R., Wruck, E., & Boas, D. (2008). Hemodynamic response to featural changes in the occipital and inferior temporal cortex in infants: A preliminary methodological exploration. Developmental Science, 11, 361-370.

[pdf] Chen, H.C., Vaid, J., Bortfeld, H., & Boas, D. (2008). Optical imaging of phonological processing in two distinct orthographies. Experimental Brain Research, 184, 427-433.

[pdf] Franceschini, M.A., Thaker, S., Themelis, G., Krishnamoorthy, K., Bortfeld, H., Diamond, S., Boas, D., Arvin, K., & Grant, E. (2007). Assessment of infant brain development with frequency-domain near-infrared spectroscopy. Pediatric Research, 61, 546-551.

[pdf] McGlone, M., Bortfeld, H., & Kobrynowicz, D. (2007). Laying it on thin: Analogical cue frequency in the manipulation of choice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 721-731.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H., Wruck, E., & Boas, D. (2007). Assessing infants’ cortical response to speech using near-infrared spectroscopy. NeuroImage, 34, 407-415.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H., Smith, S.M., & Tassinary, L.G. (2006). Memory and the brain: A retrospective. Cognition & Emotion, 20, 1027-1045.

[htm] Bortfeld, H. (2005). Baby talk. In N.J. Salkind (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Human Development. London: Sage.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H., Morgan, J., Golinkoff, R., & Rathbun, K. (2005). Mommy and me: Familiar names help launch babies into speech stream segmentation. Psychological Science, 16, 298-304.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H. (2005). Discourse on discourse. American Journal of Psychology, 118, 302-305.

[pdf] Wilcox, T., Bortfeld, H., Woods, R., Wruck, E., & Boas, D. (2005). Using near-infrared spectroscopy to assess neural activation during object processing in infants. Journal of Biomedical Optics, 10, 011010-1-011010-9.

[pdf of target article, plus commentaries] Bortfeld, H. (2004). Which came first: Infants learning language or motherese? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27, 505-507.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H. (2003). Comprehending idioms cross-linguistically. Experimental Psychology, 50, 1-15.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H. (2002). Commentary on Essays in Honor of Jacques Mehler, E. Dupoux (Ed.), LINGUIST List 13.1705.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H. (2002). What native and non-native speakers’ images for idioms tell us about figurative language. In Heredia, R., & Altarriba, J. (Eds.), Advances in Psychology: Bilingual Sentence Processing (pp. 275-295). North Holland: Elsevier Press.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H., Leon, S., Bloom, J., Schober, M., & Brennan, S. (2001). Disfluency rates in conversation: Effects of age, relationship, topic, role, and gender. Language and Speech, 44, 123-147.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H., & Whitehurst, G. (2001). Sensitive periods to first language acquisition. In D. Bailey, J. Bruer, J. Lichtman, & F. Symons (Eds.) Critical thinking about critical periods: Perspectives from Biology, Psychology, and Education (pp. 173-192). Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H., & McGlone, M. (2001). The continuum of metaphor processing. Metaphor and Symbol, 16, 75-86.

[pdf] Gerrig, R., & Bortfeld, H. (1999). Sense creation in and out of discourse contexts. Journal of Memory and Language, 41, 457-468.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H. (1999). Language and its normal processing. Language and Education, 13, 156-159.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H. (1998). Computer-mediated communication: Linguistic, social, and cross-cultural perspectives. Language, 74, 420.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H., & Brennan, S. (1997). Use and acquisition of idiomatic expressions in referring by native and non-native speakers. Discourse Processes, 23, 21-49.

TEXTBOOKS

Bortfeld, H., & Bunge, S. A. (2024). Fundamentals of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

PEER-REVIEWED PROCEEDINGS

Shaw, K. & Bortfeld, H. (2015). Infants are sensitive to asynchronous audiovisual speech. In BUCLD 39: Proceedings of the 39th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Grant, E., Themelis, G., Arvin, K., Thaker, S., Krishnamoorthy, K., Bortfeld, H., & Franceshini, M.A. (2006). Alterations in regional oxygen saturation (StO2) and blood volume (HbT) in infants with brain injuries and ECMO. Biomedical Optics: Technical Digest of the Optical Society of America, MC4.

Singh, L., Nestor, S., & Bortfeld, H. (2006). Effects of word familiarity on word recognition in infancy. In D. Bamman, T. Magnitskaia, & C. Zaller (Eds.), BUCLD 30: Proceedings of the 30th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

McGlone, M.S., Bortfeld, H., & Kobrynowicz, D. (2006). Using idioms to invoke implicit analogical framing in decision making. Texas Linguistics Forum, 49, 108-116.

Bortfeld, H., Rathbun, K., Morgan, J., & Golinkoff, R. (2003). What’s in a name? Highly familiar items anchor infants’ segmentation of fluent speech. In B. Beachley, A. Brown, & F. Conlin (Eds.), BUCLD 27: Proceedings of the 27th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Nadig, A., Sedivy, J., Joshi, A., & Bortfeld, H. (2003). The development of discourse constraints on the interpretation of adjectives. In B. Beachley, A. Brown, & F. Conlin (Eds.), BUCLD 27: Proceedings of the 27th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Singh, L., Bortfeld, H., & Morgan, J. (2002). Effects of variability on infant word recognition. In A. Do, L. Domínguez, and A. Johansen (Eds.), BUCLD 26: Proceedings of the 26th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 608-619). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H., & Morgan, J. (2000). The influence of focusing stress on infants’ recognition of words in fluent speech. In S. Catherine Howell, S. Fish, & T. Keith-Lucas (Eds.), BUCLD 24: Proceedings of the 24th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp.151-163). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Bortfeld, H., & Morgan, J. (1999). Interaction of varieties of stress in infant-directed speech, Proceedings of the 14th Annual International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2, 1185-1188.

Bortfeld, H., Leon, S., Bloom, J., Schober, M., & Brennan, S. (1999). Which speakers are most disfluent in conversation and when? Proceedings of the 1st Annual Speech Disfluency Satellite Conference of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences.

[pdf] Bortfeld, H., & Morgan, J. (1999). Disentangling multiple sources of stress in infant-directed speech. In A. Greenhill, H. Littlefield & C. Tano (Eds.), BUCLD 23: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp.103-111). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

McGlone, M., & Bortfeld, H. (1999). The continuum of metaphor processing. Proceedings of the AISB’99 Symposium on Metaphor, Artificial Intelligence, and Cognition. Edinburgh, Scotland: University of Edinburgh Press.

Bortfeld, H., & Morgan, J. (1998). Many sources of stress in infant-directed speech. Les Sons de la Parole Spontanee, La Baume-les-Aix, European Scientific Communication Association.

Bortfeld, H., & Brennan, S. (1994). Lexical Entrainment: Psycholinguistic evidence for lexical choice between native and non-native speakers. The Penn Review of Linguistics: Proceedings of the Penn Linguistics Colloquium, 18.