Mismatch negativity indicates vowel discrimination in newborns.
The present study shows that an infrequent vowel ('deviant') presented among frequent vowels ('standard') elicits in sleeping human newborns a negativity in the auditory event-related potential (ERP) resembling the mismatch negativity (MMN) recorded in adults. Thus, the MMN appears to provide means to investigate brain mechanisms of vowel perception in infants.
Cheour-Luhtanen
M
M
Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Alho
K
K
Kujala
T
T
Sainio
K
K
Reinikainen
K
K
Renlund
M
M
Aaltonen
O
O
Eerola
O
O
Näätänen
R
R
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*