title: Detecting the temporal structure of sound sequences in newborn infants.
abstract: Most high-level auditory functions require one to detect the onset and offset of sound sequences as well as registering the rate at which sounds are presented within the sound trains. By recording event-related brain potentials to onsets and offsets of tone trains as well as to changes in the presentation rate, we tested whether these fundamental auditory capabilities are functional at birth. Each of these events elicited significant event-related potential components in sleeping healthy neonates. The data thus demonstrate that the newborn brain is sensitive to these acoustic features suggesting that infants are geared towards the temporal aspects of segregating sound sources, speech and music perception already at birth.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Magyar Tudósok körútja 2, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary. Electronic address: haden.gabor@ttk.mta.hu.
authors.forename: Gábor P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Háden
authors.affiliation: Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 107, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, Nieuwe Achtergracht 129, 1018 WS Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: honing@uva.nl.
authors.forename: Henkjan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Honing
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics-Gynaecology and Perinatal Intensive Care Unit, Military Hospital, Podmaniczky u. 111, H-1062 Budapest, Hungary. Electronic address: miklostorok@vipmail.hu.
authors.forename: Miklós
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Török
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Magyar Tudósok körútja 2, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary; Institute of Psychology, University of Szeged, Egyetem u. 2, H-6722 Szeged, Hungary. Electronic address: winkler.istvan@ttk.mta.hu.
authors.forename: István
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Winkler
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D013016:Sound
keywords: Auditory processing; Development; Event related potentials; Offset; Onset; Presentation rate