1. Neuroscience

Sensitivity to vocal emotions emerges in newborns at 37 weeks gestational age

  1. Xinlin Hou
  2. Peng Zhang
  3. Licheng Mo
  4. Cheng Peng
  5. Dandan Zhang  Is a corresponding author
  1. Department of Pediatrics, Peking University First Hospital, China
  2. Department of Pediatrics, Miyun Country Maternal and Child Health Hospital, China
  3. Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, China
  4. Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science, China
  5. China Center for Behavioral Economics and Finance, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, China
  6. School of Psychology, Chengdu Medical College, China
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.95393.4
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  1. Xinlin Hou
  2. Peng Zhang
  3. Licheng Mo
  4. Cheng Peng
  5. Dandan Zhang
(2024)
Sensitivity to vocal emotions emerges in newborns at 37 weeks gestational age
eLife 13:RP95393.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.95393.4
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3 figures, 1 table and 2 additional files

Figures

Figure 1
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Mismatch response (MMR) waveforms were recorded across six electrodes in different gestational age (GA) groups.

The MMR is extracted by subtracting the event-related potential (ERP) elicited by the standard stimulus (neutral condition) from the ERP evoked by the deviant stimulus (happy condition).

Figure 2
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Primary mismatch response (MMR) results.

(A) Event-related potential (ERP) waveforms (averaged at the F3 and F4 electrodes) across the six gestational age (GA) groups. The time window for assessing MMR amplitude is indicated between the two vertical gray lines. (B) Violin plot illustrating MMR amplitudes in the six GA groups. Simple effect analysis was performed with pairwise comparisons, corrected using the Bonferroni method: **p<0.010, ***p<0.001.

Figure 3
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Oscillograms and spectrograms displaying vocal and nonvocal auditory stimuli for the syllable ‘dada’ (international phonetic symbol: [ta ta]).

Tables

Table 1
Epoch numbers in different conditions (mean ± standard deviation).
GA group(week)Vocal happyNonvocal happyVocal neutralNonvocal neutral
3553.15 ± 4.8652.65 ± 6.79215.55 ± 16.58214.10 ± 21.80
3651.20 ± 7.1848.80 ± 11.04201.90 ± 30.78196.25 ± 38.24
3748.45 ± 6.7950.40 ± 5.98191.40 ± 38.00199.70 ± 32.30
3848.35 ± 9.0351.00 ± 6.47197.95 ± 35.37202.60 ± 27.40
3949.40 ± 7.0649.65 ± 8.11198.35 ± 31.65198.25 ± 36.47
4049.80 ± 6.5350.35 ± 5.71192.95 ± 32.55202.85 ± 24.42

Additional files

Supplementary file 1

Experimental sounds.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/95393/elife-95393-supp1-v1.zip
Source code 1

Contains the MATLAB script.

https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/95393/elife-95393-code1-v1.zip

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  1. Xinlin Hou
  2. Peng Zhang
  3. Licheng Mo
  4. Cheng Peng
  5. Dandan Zhang
(2024)
Sensitivity to vocal emotions emerges in newborns at 37 weeks gestational age
eLife 13:RP95393.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.95393.4