Newborn infants detect the beat in music.
To shed light on how humans can learn to understand music, we need to discover what the perceptual capabilities with which infants are born. Beat induction, the detection of a regular pulse in an auditory signal, is considered a fundamental human trait that, arguably, played a decisive role in the origin of music. Theorists are divided on the issue whether this ability is innate or learned. We show that newborn infants develop expectation for the onset of rhythmic cycles (the downbeat), even when it is not marked by stress or other distinguishing spectral features. Omitting the downbeat elicits brain activity associated with violating sensory expectations. Thus, our results strongly support the view that beat perception is innate.
Winkler
István
I
Institute for Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1394 Budapest, P.O. Box 398, Hungary. iwinkler@cogpsyphy.hu
Háden
Gábor P
GP
Ladinig
Olivia
O
Sziller
István
I
Honing
Henkjan
H
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D010507:Periodicity; D013997:Time Factors; D013998:Time Perception