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Updated: May 31, 2026
06:34
Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
Early specialization for voice and emotion processing in the infant brain
Anna Blasi1, Evelyne Mercure, Sarah Lloyd-Fox
1Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Science, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, UK. anna.blasi@kcl.ac.uk
Current Biology : CB
|July 5, 2011
Summary
Infants as young as 3 months show specialized brain responses to human voices, similar to adults. This early voice processing includes responses to emotional vocalizations, indicating a developing social brain.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Auditory Processing
Background:
- The adult brain exhibits specialized regions for processing human voices and emotions, forming the
- social brain
- ]
- Developmental origins of voice specialization remain unclear.
- Previous infant studies show mixed results on voice processing specialization.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate early brain specialization for processing nonspeech human vocalizations in infants.
- Determine if infants show similar voice processing brain regions as adults.
- Examine infant brain responses to emotional vocalizations.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study.
- Participants: 3- to 7-month-old infants.
- Stimuli: Adult nonspeech vocalizations (neutral, positive, negative emotions) and environmental sounds.
Main Results:
- Infants showed differential activation in the anterior temporal cortex for human voices, mirroring adult patterns.
- Sad vocalizations modulated activity in infant orbitofrontal cortex and insula, regions involved in affective processing.
- Evidence suggests early functional specialization for voice and negative emotion processing.
Conclusions:
- The infant brain exhibits early specialization for processing human voices.
- Functional specialization for voice processing emerges in the anterior temporal cortex by 3-7 months.
- Infants demonstrate early sensitivity to emotional vocalizations, particularly sadness.
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