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Neural Representation of Transposed Melody in Infants at 6 Months of Age
Author(s) -
Tew Sarah,
Fujioka Takako,
He Chao,
Trainor Laurel
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04845.x
Subject(s) - mismatch negativity , melody , audiology , negativity effect , event related potential , psychology , electroencephalography , developmental psychology , medicine , neuroscience , musical , art , visual arts
We examined adults’ and 6‐month‐old infants’ event‐related potentials in response to occasional changes (deviants) in a 4‐note melody presented at different pitch levels from trial to trial. In both groups, responses to standard and deviant stimuli differed significantly; however, adults produced a typical mismatch negativity (MMN), whereas 6‐month‐old infants exhibited a slow positive wave. We conclude that 6‐month‐old infants, like adults, encode melodic information in terms of relative pitch distances, but that the underlying cortical activity differs significantly from that of adults.