Brain Products Young Scientist Award 2026 presented to Trinh Nguyen

by Stefanie Rudrich
Head of Marketing (Brain Products)

The Brain Products Young Scientist Award is presented each year to recognize a young researcher’s outstanding publication in the field of EEG-based psychophysiological research. The winner is chosen by an independent jury, which is appointed by the managing board of the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie und ihre Anwendung” (DGPA). At Brain Products, we want to have a positive impact on the fields of psychology and neuroscience and thereby award and celebrate excellent EEG research in these domains. By continuously recognizing young scientists, we aim to support the next generation of researchers and their scientific discoveries.

This year’s award ceremony took place on June 5th at the 51th Annual Conference “Psychologie & Gehirn” (PuG) in Heidelberg (Germany), where Trinh Nguyen was presented as the Young Scientist Award winner 2026.

Trinh is a research associate at Heidelberg University and an affiliated researcher with the Neuroscience of Perception and Action Lab at the Italian Institute of Technology in Rome (Italy) and received a trophy, a certificate and a cheque for 1000€.

In general, Trinh’s research focuses on the neurobiological processes underlying social (rhythmic) interactions.

In her awarded publication, “Development of neural and spontaneous movement responses to music over the first year of life“, she and her co-authors provide insights into the development of infants’ responses to music based on the exploration of EEG neural auditory responses and video-based movement analysis. They found that infants’ brains distinguish music from scrambled sound from as early as three months, while enhanced movement to music emerged only by 12 months, with no age group yet showing coordinated movement to the beat.

For more details, see the original abstract (below) and don’t miss out on reading the full publication.

Brain Products Young Scientist Award 2026 presented to Trinh Nguyen

Brain Products Young Scientist Award Winner 2026: Trinh Nguyen

Abstract

T. Nguyen, F. Bigand, S. Reisner, A. Koul, R. Bianco, G. Markova, S. Hoehl, G. Novembre (2026)
Development of Auditory and Spontaneous Movement Responses to Music over the First Postnatal Year.
eLife 14:RP107088 https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.107088

Humans across cultures not only share the ability to recognise music but also respond to it through movement. While the sensory encoding of music is well-studied, when and how infants naturally start moving to music is largely unexplored. This study simultaneously investigates infants’ neural (auditory) responses and spontaneous movements to music during the first postnatal year. Neural activity (EEG) and body kinematics (markerless pose estimation) were recorded from 79 infants (aged 3, 6, and 12 months) listening to refrains of children’s music, along with shuffled, high-pitched, and low-pitched versions of the same songs. Neural data revealed that, across all ages, infants exhibit enhanced auditory responses to music compared to shuffled music, indicating that auditory encoding of music emerges early in development. Movement data revealed a different outcome. While coarse auditory-motor coupling is present at all ages, more complex structured movement patterns emerge in response to music only by 12 months. Notably, no age group demonstrated evidence of coordinated movements to music. Additionally, enhanced auditory responses to high vs low pitch were only evident at 6 months, while infants’ movements were better predicted by high-pitched compared to low-pitched music at all ages. This study provides initial insights into how the developing brain gradually transforms music into spontaneous movements of increasing complexity.

On behalf of the whole Brain Products team, congratulations, Trinh, on winning our Young Scientist Award 2026! We will continue to follow your research and wish you all the best for your future!

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Reference

Nguyen Trinh, Bigand Félix, Reisner Susanne, Koul Atesh, Bianco Roberta, Markova Gabriela, Hoehl Stefanie, Novembre Giacomo (2026)
Development of Auditory and Spontaneous Movement Responses to Music over the First Postnatal Year
eLife 14:RP107088 https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.107088