Development of auditory and spontaneous movement responses to music over the first postnatal year
- Neuroscience of Perception and Action Lab, Italian Institute of Technology, Italy
- Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria
- Department of Developmental and Biological Psychology, Heidelberg University, Germany
- Doctoral School Cognition, Behavior and Neuroscience, University of Vienna, Austria
- Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Italy
- Institute for Early Life Care, Paracelsus Medical University, Austria
Figures
Figure 1
Overview of the procedure (A), experimental conditions (B), and participant sample (C).
(A) Infants sat in front of a screen with speakers on each side. The screen showed slowly blossoming flowers to attract infants’ attention. Caregivers (not shown) sat behind the infants and wore noise-cancelling headphones. (B) Infants listened to polyphonic auditory stimuli consisting of a melody and a bassline in four different conditions. The music condition included two children’s songs. The shuffled music condition included versions of the songs used in the music condition that were shuffled in pitch order and randomised in inter-onset intervals (IOI). Stimuli belonging to the music and shuffled music conditions had the same set of pitches (pitch range), differing only in sequence and timing. In the high-pitch condition, the melody was shifted one octave higher than in the music condition. In the low-pitch condition, the bassline was shifted one octave lower than in the music condition. Hence, the two voices composing the high-pitch condition were one octave higher than those composing the low-pitch condition. (C) The sample included infants at 3 months (N=26), 6 months (N=26), 12 months (N=27), and an adult control sample (N=26). The dots overlaying the images represent the body parts whose movements were tracked using video-based kinematic analysis.
Figure 2 with 1 supplement
Developmental changes in neural responses to musical structure and pitch.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by the notes within the music (orange, left) vs shuffled music (khaki, left) as well as by the notes comprised within the high-pitch (blue, right) vs low-pitch music (purple, right), across four groups of participants (plotted in ascending order of age, from top to bottom): 3-, 6-, 12-month-old infants (N=79) and adults (N=26). Grand-average ERPs are averaged across electrodes within the significant cluster of each age group in the music condition (except for pitch condition comparison in the 6-month-olds, which used the cluster from that contrast). Shaded areas indicate the standard error. ERPs show progressively shorter latencies with increasing age. All groups exhibited a P1 response, while only older infants (12-month-olds) and adults additionally exhibited a P2. Music elicited a larger P1 (and, when present, P2) amplitude compared to shuffled music, notably across all groups (time ranges associated with a significant difference are indicated by horizontal black lines). The topography of this neural response (averaged across the time window of the P1 cluster) in the music condition appears to shift more medially with increasing age. Colorbars beneath topography plots index EEG amplitude values.
Figure 2—figure supplement 1
Control ERP analysis matched for longer inter-onset intervals.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by the notes comprised within the music (orange) vs shuffled music (khaki) across four groups of participants from top to bottom: 3-, 6-, 12-month-old infants (N=79) and adults (N=26). To control for differences in inter-onset interval (IOI) between conditions, these analyses retained only shuffled-music epochs whose IOI exceeded the median IOI duration (212 ms), applying three selection criteria (columns). Left: the prior IOI of the bassline note exceeded the median. Middle: the subsequent IOI of the bassline note exceeded the median. Right (most stringent): both the prior and subsequent IOIs, computed across melody and bassline notes, exceeded the median. The number of epochs in the music condition was matched to that of the shuffled music condition in each case. Grand-average ERPs were computed by averaging across electrodes within the significant cluster identified for each age group in the primary music condition based on the primary ERP analysis. Shaded areas indicate the standard error of the mean.
Figure 3
Developmental changes in auditory steady-state responses to musical beat.
Relative EEG Power (arbitrary units [a.u.], y-axis) of the auditory steady-state responses (ASSR) elicited by music versus shuffled music (orange and khaki, left), and high-pitch versus low-pitch musical stimuli (blue and purple, right), across four participant groups: 3-month-olds (first row), 6-month-olds (second row), 12-month-olds (third row), and adults (fourth row). ASSR power estimates at the frequency (x-axis) matching the musical beat (2.25 Hz, highlighted by vertical dashed lines and including the standard error of the mean) were statistically higher when elicited by music compared to shuffled music across nearly all participant groups (i.e. all but 6-month-olds). High- and low-pitch stimuli evoked similar ASSR (at 2.25 Hz). These results broadly align with the event-related potential (ERP) results (Figure 2) across most infant groups and adults, except for 6-month-old infants for whom differences across conditions were either trending (music vs shuffled) or not significant (high vs low pitch).
Figure 4
Principal movements characterizing infant movement responses.
Infants’ principal movements (PMs) are illustrated by showing the two most different body postures (min and max of the PM score, in gray and black, respectively) from the frontal perspective. The reader should interpret the PM as the kinematic displacement necessary to shift from one body posture (gray) to the other (black). Circle diagrams denote the proportion (%) of kinematic variance explained by each PM. Together, the ten PMs account for 79.7% of the total kinematic variance.
Figure 5
Quantity of movement across musical conditions and age groups.
Quantity of movement (QoM; mean, a.u.) elicited by music (orange) versus shuffled music (khaki) and high-pitch (blue) versus low-pitch music (purple) across different age groups (3-month-olds, 6-month-olds, 12-month-olds) and principal movements (PMs). Bar plots indicate the mean and standard error of QoM across different age groups, conditions, and PMs. Only 12-month-old infants showed significantly increased QoM in response to music compared to shuffled music, specifically in PMs involving upper body movements (front-back rocking, side sway, proto-clapping, up-down rocking, and arm pedalling). No significant differences were observed between high- and low-pitch conditions. These results were also replicated in a supplementary analysis assessing differences in variance of (as opposed to mean) QoM (see Appendix 2 for more details). †=p<0.100, *=p<0.050, **=p<0.010, ***=p<0.001.
Figure 6 with 3 supplements
Music-driven movement (Granger causality analysis).
Top-right: A sanity check analysis showed that musical stimuli (i.e. sound envelope) predicted subsequent movement velocity (green) better than vice versa (gray; p<0.001). Left: Movement velocity was better predicted by music (orange) than by shuffled music (khaki), particularly with time lags of 160–200 ms (shaded areas indicate the standard error of the mean ; horizontal black lines underline time ranges associated with a significant difference between conditions). Right: Movement was better predicted by high-pitch music (blue) compared to low-pitch music (purple).
Figure 6—figure supplement 1
Granger causality across individual principal movements and age groups.
The figure displays the Granger causality F-values (y-axis) averaged across conditions and age groups for all principal movements (PMs) combined (top row left) as well as for individual PMs (1–10, left to right). The left columns include music (orange) vs shuffled music (khaki) contrasts for each age group (x-axis: 3 m, 6 m, and 12 m) while the right columns include high-pitch (blue) vs low-pitch (purple) contrasts. Across all three age groups, movement velocity was more strongly predicted by music than shuffled music, and by high-pitch than low-pitch music, p<0.001. These effects were particularly pronounced for movement patterns, such as front-back rocking (PM1), proto-clapping (PM3), leg kicking (PM4), and whole-body wiggle (PM8), especially so at 6 and 12 months of age, as reflected in the variation of Granger F-values across PMs and ages.
Figure 6—figure supplement 2
Velocity of movement responses following peaks in auditory amplitude.
The figure displays the z-scored velocity (a.u., y-axis) of infants’ movement responses over time (in seconds, x-axis) following peaks in the amplitude envelope of the stimuli (at time = 0) across different conditions. These peaks represent moments of increased acoustic intensity in the music, allowing visualization of how infants at three developmental stages (3 months, top row; 6 months, middle row; 12 months, bottom row) synchronized their movements with dynamic changes in the sound. Each subplot compares different conditions, with left plots comparing music (orange) to shuffled music (khaki) and right plots comparing high-pitch (blue) with low-pitch music (purple) conditions. None of the age groups show significant differences in velocities following peaks in the amplitude envelope of the auditory stimuli across conditions. Specifically, the results suggest that changes in sound intensity seem to evoke movement responses that vary in latency and might be inconsistent across trials (with the only exception of the 12-month-old infants, who appear to show a peak around 200 ms across several conditions). In this context, such varying responses are better captured by Granger causality analysis. Perhaps because such predictive approaches are more powerful in picking up signals that might be either sporadic or variable in amplitude and/or sign across trials (Shojaie & Fox, 2022).
Figure 6—figure supplement 3
Density of infant periodic movements across conditions.
The graphs depict the density (y-axis) function of infants’ periodic movement to music (orange) vs shuffles music (khaki) as well as high-pitch (blue) vs low-pitch music (purple) averaged across all principal movements (PMs) at three developmental stages: 3 months (top row), 6 months (middle row), and 12 months (bottom row). The lag in seconds is depicted on the x-axis and the dotted vertical line indicates the musical beat (444 ms lag). Infants’ movements tended to be rhythmic, however, not differently across conditions (i.e. the contrasts of density values across conditions were not significant).
Tables
Table 1
Acoustic characteristics of the musical stimuli.
| Song name (condition) | Tempo M±SD (s) | IOI range (s) | IPI M±SD (semitones) | IPI range (semitones) | Bass note and pitch range (Hz) | Melody Note and pitch range (Hz) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hopp (Music) | 0.422±0.067 | 0.222–0.444 | 0.040±4.585 | –10–7 | E2 to E3 (82.41–164.82 Hz) | A3 to A4 (220.00–440.00 Hz) |
| Hopp (Shuffled Music) | 0.422±0.187 | 0.112–0.666 | 0.100±4.782 | –7–12 | E2 to E3 (82.41–164.82 Hz) | A3 to A4 (220.00–440.00 Hz) |
| Hopp (High Pitch) | 0.422±0.067 | 0.222–0.444 | 0.040±4.585 | –10–7 | E2 to E3 (82.41–164.82 Hz) | A4 to A5 (440.00–880.00 Hz) |
| Hopp (Low Pitch) | 0.422±0.067 | 0.222–0.444 | 0.040±4.585 | –10–7 | E1 to E2 (41.20–82.41 Hz) | A3 to A4 (220.00–440.00 Hz) |
| Lola (Music) | 0.444±0.000 | 0.444–0.444 | 0.149±2.836 | –7–7 | E2 to E3 (82.41–164.82 Hz) | A3 to A4 (220.00–440.00 Hz) |
| Lola (Shuffled Music) | 0.444±0.182 | 0.222–0.665 | 0.234±4.864 | –12–11 | E2 to E3 (82.41–164.82 Hz) | A3 to A4 (220.00–440.00 Hz) |
| Lola (High Pitch) | 0.444±0.000 | 0.444–0.444 | 0.149±2.836 | –7–7 | E2 to E3 (82.41–164.82 Hz) | A4 to A5 (440.00–880.00 Hz) |
| Lola (Low Pitch) | 0.444±0.000 | 0.444–0.444 | 0.149±2.836 | –7–7 | E1 to E2 (41.20–82.41 Hz) | A3 to A4 (220.00–440.00 Hz) |
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Note. M=mean, SD = standard deviation, IOI = inter-onset interval, IPI = inter peak interval, Hz = hertz (frequency). IOI and IPI were computed across melody and bass notes. Hopp refers to the Hungarian playsong (‘Hopp Juliska’), Lola refers to the Spanish playsong (‘La vaca lola’).
Additional files
-
MDAR checklist
- https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/107088/elife-107088-mdarchecklist1-v1.docx
-
Supplementary file 1
Table on continued acoustic characteristics of the musical stimuli.
- https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/107088/elife-107088-supp1-v1.docx
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Development of auditory and spontaneous movement responses to music over the first postnatal year
eLife 14:RP107088.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.107088.4
