title: Sounds elicit relative left frontal alpha activity in 2-month-old infants.
abstract: As one kind of sounds, human voices are important for language acquisition and human-infant relations. Human voices have positive effects on infants, e.g., soothe infants and evoke an infant's smile. Increased left relative to right frontal alpha activity as assessed by the electroencephalogram (EEG) is considered to reflect approach-related emotions. In the present study, we recorded the EEG in thirty-eight 2-month-old infants during a baseline period while listening to sounds, i.e., human voices. Infants displayed increased relative left frontal alpha activity in response to sounds compared to the baseline condition. These results suggest that sounds can elicit relative left frontal activity in young infants, and that this approach-related emotion presents early in life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoqin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Mai
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Health Care, Children's Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang 310003, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Health Care, Children's Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang 310003, China.
authors.forename: Mingyan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Health Care, Children's Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang 310003, China. Electronic address: shaojie@zju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Health Care, Children's Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang 310003, China.
authors.forename: Zhengyan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Connie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lamm
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Nathan A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.affiliation: Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Charles A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Betsy
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lozoff
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D000513:Alpha Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Electroencephalogram (EEG); Frontal lobe; Human voice; Infant