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Auditory size-deviant detection in adults and newborn infants
Martin D Vestergaard1, Gábor P Háden, Yury Shtyrov
1Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom. mdv23@cam.ac.uk
Biological Psychology
|July 15, 2009
Summary
Auditory size perception, the ability to judge sound source size, appears innate. Both adults and infants automatically detect size changes in sounds, suggesting an evolved survival mechanism.
Area of Science:
- Auditory perception
- Developmental psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Auditory size perception allows judgments of sound source size based on emitted sound.
- Investigating automatic detection of sound source size parameters in humans is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if adults and newborn infants automatically detect sound-source size parameters from task-irrelevant auditory sequences.
- To explore the innate nature of auditory size-deviant detection.
Main Methods:
- Collected electro-physiological and behavioral data.
- Utilized mismatch negativity (MMN) to assess automatic detection in adults.
- Tested responses in adults and newborn infants to changes in sound source size.
Main Results:
- Adults demonstrated automatic detection of size changes for voices, musical instruments, and animal calls via MMN.
- Detection occurred regardless of whether the acoustic change indicated larger or smaller sources.
- Newborn infants successfully detected changes in the size of a musical instrument.
Conclusions:
- Auditory size-deviant detection in humans is proposed to be an innate, automatic process.
- This ability may have evolved due to selective advantages in identifying suitors and predators.
- Findings support the evolutionary significance of auditory size perception.
