Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
College/Unit
School of Medicine
Department/Program/Center
Neurology
Abstract
Recent evidence suggests that human adults perceive human action sounds as a distinct category from human vocalizations, environmental, and mechanical sounds, activating different neural networks (Engel et al., 2009, Lewis et al., 2011). Yet, little is known about the development of such specialization. Using event-related potentials (ERP), this study investigated neural correlates of 7-month-olds’ processing of human action (HA) sounds in comparison to human vocalizations (HV), environmental (ENV), and mechanical (MEC) sounds. Relative to the other categories, HA sounds led to increased positive amplitudes between 470 and 570 ms post-stimulus onset at left anterior temporal locations, while HV led to increased negative amplitudes at the more posterior temporal locations in both hemispheres. Collectively, human produced sounds (HA + HV) led to significantly different response profiles compared to non-living sound sources (ENV + MEC) at parietal and frontal locations in both hemispheres. Overall, by 7 months of age human action sounds are being differentially processed in the brain, consistent with a dichotomy for processing living versus non-living things. This provides novel evidence regarding the typical categorical processing of socially relevant sounds.
Digital Commons Citation
Geangu, Elena; Quadrelli, Ermanno; Lewis, James W.; Cassia, Viola M.; and Turati, Chiara, "By the sound of it. An ERP investigation of human action sound processing in 7-month-old infants" (2015). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 2271.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/2271
Source Citation
Geangu, E., Quadrelli, E., Lewis, J. W., Macchi Cassia, V., & Turati, C. (2015). By the sound of it. An ERP investigation of human action sound processing in 7-month-old infants. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 12, 134–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2015.01.005
Comments
Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.