Perception of the pitch of unresolved harmonics by 3- and 7-month-old human infants

Three-month-olds discriminate resolved harmonic complexes on the basis of missing fundamental (MF) pitch. In view of reported difficulty in discriminating unresolved complexes at 7 months and striking changes in the organization of the auditory system during early infancy, infants' ability to discriminate unresolved complexes is of some interest. This study investigated the ability of 3-month-olds, 7-month-olds, and adults to discriminate the pitch of unresolved harmonic complexes using an observer-based method. Stimuli were MF complexes bandpass filtered with a -12 dB/octave slope, combined in random phase, presented at 70 dB sound pressure level (SPL) for 650 ms with a 50 ms rise/fall with a pink noise at 65 dB SPL. The conditions were (1) "LOW" unresolved harmonics (2500-4500 Hz) based on MFs of 160 and 200 Hz and (2) "HIGH" unresolved harmonics (4000-6000 Hz) based on MFs of 190 and 200 Hz. To demonstrate MF discrimination, participants had to ignore spectral changes in complexes with the same fundamental and respond only when the fundamental changed. Nearly all infants tested categorized complexes by MF pitch suggesting discrimination of pitch extracted from unresolved harmonics by 3 months. Adults also categorized the complexes by MF pitch, although musically trained adults were more successful than musically untrained adults.