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Processing acoustic change and novelty in newborn infants

Kushnerenko, Elena ; Winkler, Istvan ; Horvath, Janos ; Naatanen, Risto ; Pavlov, Ivan ; Fellman, Vineta LU orcid and Huotilainen, Minna (2007) In European Journal of Neuroscience 26(1). p.265-274
Abstract
Research on event-related potential (ERP) correlates of auditory deviance-detection in newborns provided inconsistent results; temporal and topographic ERP characteristics differed widely across studies and individual infants. Robust and reliable ERP responses were, however, obtained to sounds (termed 'novel' sounds), which cover a wide range of frequencies and widely differ from the context provided by a repeating sound [Kushnerenko et al., (2002) NeuroReport, 13, 1843-1848]. The question we investigated here is whether this effect can be attributed to novelty per se or to acoustic characteristics of the 'novel' sounds, such as their wide frequency spectrum and high signal energy compared with the repeated tones. We also asked how... (More)
Research on event-related potential (ERP) correlates of auditory deviance-detection in newborns provided inconsistent results; temporal and topographic ERP characteristics differed widely across studies and individual infants. Robust and reliable ERP responses were, however, obtained to sounds (termed 'novel' sounds), which cover a wide range of frequencies and widely differ from the context provided by a repeating sound [Kushnerenko et al., (2002) NeuroReport, 13, 1843-1848]. The question we investigated here is whether this effect can be attributed to novelty per se or to acoustic characteristics of the 'novel' sounds, such as their wide frequency spectrum and high signal energy compared with the repeated tones. We also asked how sensitivity to these stimulus aspects changes with development. Twelve newborns and 11 adults were tested in four different oddball conditions, each including a 'standard' sound presented with the probability of 0.8 and two types of infrequent 'deviant' sounds (0.1 probability, each). Deviants were (i) 'novel' sounds (diverse environmental noises); (ii) white-noise segments, or harmonic tones of (iii) a higher pitch, or (iv) higher intensity. In newborns, white-noise deviants elicited the largest response in all latency ranges, whereas in adults, this phenomenon was not found. Thus, newborns appear to be especially sensitive to sounds having a wide frequency spectrum. On the other hand, the pattern of results found for the late discriminative ERP response indicates that newborns may also be able to detect novelty in acoustic stimulation, although with a longer latency than adults, as shown by the ERP response. Results are discussed in terms of developmental refinement of the initially broadly tuned neonate auditory system. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
P3a, orienting, auditory event-related potentials (ERPs), mismatch negativity (MMN), spectral width
in
European Journal of Neuroscience
volume
26
issue
1
pages
265 - 274
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • wos:000247754800026
  • scopus:34447131563
  • pmid:17573923
ISSN
1460-9568
DOI
10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05628.x
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ed42eda4-ac4a-4dc0-bfe1-0cdb6cb0b840 (old id 647471)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:45:44
date last changed
2022-04-20 21:25:13
@article{ed42eda4-ac4a-4dc0-bfe1-0cdb6cb0b840,
  abstract     = {{Research on event-related potential (ERP) correlates of auditory deviance-detection in newborns provided inconsistent results; temporal and topographic ERP characteristics differed widely across studies and individual infants. Robust and reliable ERP responses were, however, obtained to sounds (termed 'novel' sounds), which cover a wide range of frequencies and widely differ from the context provided by a repeating sound [Kushnerenko et al., (2002) NeuroReport, 13, 1843-1848]. The question we investigated here is whether this effect can be attributed to novelty per se or to acoustic characteristics of the 'novel' sounds, such as their wide frequency spectrum and high signal energy compared with the repeated tones. We also asked how sensitivity to these stimulus aspects changes with development. Twelve newborns and 11 adults were tested in four different oddball conditions, each including a 'standard' sound presented with the probability of 0.8 and two types of infrequent 'deviant' sounds (0.1 probability, each). Deviants were (i) 'novel' sounds (diverse environmental noises); (ii) white-noise segments, or harmonic tones of (iii) a higher pitch, or (iv) higher intensity. In newborns, white-noise deviants elicited the largest response in all latency ranges, whereas in adults, this phenomenon was not found. Thus, newborns appear to be especially sensitive to sounds having a wide frequency spectrum. On the other hand, the pattern of results found for the late discriminative ERP response indicates that newborns may also be able to detect novelty in acoustic stimulation, although with a longer latency than adults, as shown by the ERP response. Results are discussed in terms of developmental refinement of the initially broadly tuned neonate auditory system.}},
  author       = {{Kushnerenko, Elena and Winkler, Istvan and Horvath, Janos and Naatanen, Risto and Pavlov, Ivan and Fellman, Vineta and Huotilainen, Minna}},
  issn         = {{1460-9568}},
  keywords     = {{P3a; orienting; auditory event-related potentials (ERPs); mismatch negativity (MMN); spectral width}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{265--274}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{European Journal of Neuroscience}},
  title        = {{Processing acoustic change and novelty in newborn infants}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05628.x}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05628.x}},
  volume       = {{26}},
  year         = {{2007}},
}