Neural Representation of Transposed Melody in Infants at 6 Months of Age Academic Article uri icon

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abstract

  • 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.

publication date

  • July 2009