Event-related brain potential of human newborns to pitch change of an acoustic stimulus.
We report here event-related potentials (ERPs) of human newborns to occasional pitch changes in a repetitive sequence of tone pips. These pitch changes elicited a large slow negative ERP component which resembles the mismatch negativity (MMN) generated by the adult brain under similar conditions. This MMN-type of negativity in newborns suggests that already at this early ontogenetic stage the brain monitors the acoustic environment for a possible change in any of its repetitive aspects. Apart from its theoretical interest, this finding might provide a new way to test the development of the central nervous system and to diagnose cerebral dysfunction at a very early stage.
Alho
K
K
Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Sainio
K
K
Sajaniemi
N
N
Reinikainen
K
K
Näätänen
R
R
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010897:Pitch Discrimination / Q000502:physiology*