Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

A kind of auditory 'primitive intelligence' already present at birth

Carral, V ; Huotilainen, M ; Ruusuvirta, T ; Fellman, Vineta LU orcid ; Naatanen, R and Escera, C (2005) In European Journal of Neuroscience 21(11). p.3201-3204
Abstract
'Primitive intelligence' in audition refers to the capacity of the auditory system to adaptatively model the acoustic regularity and react neurophysiologically to violations of such regularity, thus supporting the ability to predict future auditory events. In the present study, event-related brain potentials to pairs of tones were recorded in 11 human newborns to determine the infants' ability to extract an abstract acoustic rule, the direction of a frequency change. Most of the pairs (standard, P = 0.875) were of ascending frequency (i.e. the second tone higher than the first), while the remaining pairs (deviant, P = 0.125) were of descending frequency (the second tone being lower). Their frequencies varied among seven levels to prevent... (More)
'Primitive intelligence' in audition refers to the capacity of the auditory system to adaptatively model the acoustic regularity and react neurophysiologically to violations of such regularity, thus supporting the ability to predict future auditory events. In the present study, event-related brain potentials to pairs of tones were recorded in 11 human newborns to determine the infants' ability to extract an abstract acoustic rule, the direction of a frequency change. Most of the pairs (standard, P = 0.875) were of ascending frequency (i.e. the second tone higher than the first), while the remaining pairs (deviant, P = 0.125) were of descending frequency (the second tone being lower). Their frequencies varied among seven levels to prevent discrimination between standard and deviant pairs on the basis of absolute frequencies. We found that event-related brain potentials to deviant pairs differed in amplitude from those to standard pairs at 50-450 ms from the onset of the second tone of a pair, indicating the infants' ability to represent the abstract rule. This finding suggests the early ontogenetic origin of 'primitive intelligence' in audition that eventually may form a prerequisite for later language acquisition. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
human, change detection, abstract regularities, auditory perception, mismatch negativity, infant
in
European Journal of Neuroscience
volume
21
issue
11
pages
3201 - 3204
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • wos:000230053100029
  • pmid:15978029
  • scopus:21444441596
ISSN
1460-9568
DOI
10.1111/j.1460-9568.2005.04144.x
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1a465511-b8d7-418d-855f-83a296b8337d (old id 235780)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:13:06
date last changed
2022-01-27 00:33:04
@article{1a465511-b8d7-418d-855f-83a296b8337d,
  abstract     = {{'Primitive intelligence' in audition refers to the capacity of the auditory system to adaptatively model the acoustic regularity and react neurophysiologically to violations of such regularity, thus supporting the ability to predict future auditory events. In the present study, event-related brain potentials to pairs of tones were recorded in 11 human newborns to determine the infants' ability to extract an abstract acoustic rule, the direction of a frequency change. Most of the pairs (standard, P = 0.875) were of ascending frequency (i.e. the second tone higher than the first), while the remaining pairs (deviant, P = 0.125) were of descending frequency (the second tone being lower). Their frequencies varied among seven levels to prevent discrimination between standard and deviant pairs on the basis of absolute frequencies. We found that event-related brain potentials to deviant pairs differed in amplitude from those to standard pairs at 50-450 ms from the onset of the second tone of a pair, indicating the infants' ability to represent the abstract rule. This finding suggests the early ontogenetic origin of 'primitive intelligence' in audition that eventually may form a prerequisite for later language acquisition.}},
  author       = {{Carral, V and Huotilainen, M and Ruusuvirta, T and Fellman, Vineta and Naatanen, R and Escera, C}},
  issn         = {{1460-9568}},
  keywords     = {{human; change detection; abstract regularities; auditory perception; mismatch negativity; infant}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{11}},
  pages        = {{3201--3204}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{European Journal of Neuroscience}},
  title        = {{A kind of auditory 'primitive intelligence' already present at birth}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2005.04144.x}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/j.1460-9568.2005.04144.x}},
  volume       = {{21}},
  year         = {{2005}},
}