Seven-Month-Olds Can Distinguish Human Voice

Infants’ sensitivity to the human voice emerges between 4 and 7 months of age.
Seven-Month-Olds Can Distinguish Human Voice
3/27/2010
Updated:
3/27/2010
Infants’ sensitivity to the human voice emerges between 4 and 7 months of age, a recent study shows.

The findings, published in the journal Neuron on March 25, may have implications in neurodevelopmental disorders like autism.

Using near-infrared spectroscopy to examine regions in the brain’s temporal cortex, the researchers found that 7-month-olds showed adult-like responses when they heard human voices, as opposed to nonvocal sounds, but 4-month-olds did not.

The researchers also found that 7-month-olds’ right temporal cortex showed increased activity when listening to words spoken in angry or happy prosody.

“Our findings demonstrate that voice-sensitive brain regions are already specialized and modulated by emotional information by the age of 7 months and raise the possibility that the critical neurodevelopmental processes underlying impaired voice-processing reported in disorders like autism might occur before 7 months,” said Dr. Grossmann from the University of London in a press release.

“Therefore, in future work, the current approach could be used to assess individual differences in infants’ responses to voices and emotional prosody and might thus serve as one of potentially multiple markers that can help with an early identification of infants at risk for a neurodevelopmental disorder.”

To read the research paper click here