Learning enhancement | Perception | Warnke method

new research from neuroscientists at York University suggests the capacity to hear the highs and lows, also known as the major and minor notes in music, may come before you take a single lesson; you may actually be born with it.

The study, published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, examined the capacity of six-month-old infants to discriminate between a major and a minor musical tone sequence with a unique method that uses eye movements and a visual stimulus.

Previous research with adults has shown that approximately 30 per cent of adults can discriminate this difference but 70 per cent cannot, irrespective of musical training. Researchers found that six-month-old infants show exactly the same breakdown as adults: approximately 30 per cent of them could discriminate the difference and 70 per cent could not.
Visit news.yorku.ca for more info.

Summary: It’s a question most new parents ponder, can a newborn baby discriminate between speech sounds? Researchers found newborn babies encode voice pitch comparable to adults exposed to a new language for three years. However, there are some differences when it comes to distinguishing between spectral and temporal fine structures of certain sounds.

Source: University of Barcelona

People’s ability to perceive speech sounds has been deeply studied, specifically during someone’s first year of life. But what happens during the first hours after birth? Are babies born with innate abilities to perceive speech sounds, or do neural encoding processes need to age for some time?