Description
Recent models in Empirical Aesthetic highlight the relationship between the subjective sense of beauty and learning dynamic. In our recent study (Sarasso, 2021), we showed that participants' implicit learning processes are enhanced by sound sequences composed of subjectively more valued chords, either fifth consonant or tritone dissonant chord; according to literature, most of our participants preferred consonant sounds. However, when the advantage for consonance emerges within ontogeny, whether it is innate or acquired and the role of experience are still debated. To investigate how consonance modulates perceptual learning dynamic in newborns, we replicated the same experiment mentioned above. We expected to find different mechanism to process consonant and dissonant stimuli.
Twenty-two full-term healthy newborns were recruited for the experiment, and they perform an auditory roving paradigm task while their neural activity was recorded with the EEG. The task alternate sequences of frequency (Hz) standard, repeated, and deviant, novel, sounds. Participants performed 6 runs of the auditory task; In 3 runs only fifth consonant intervals (high pitch and low pitch) were presented, whereas in the remaining 3 trials only tritones dissonant (high pitch and low pitch) were presented.
We computed mismatch responses (MMR), a well-validated index of perceptual learning by comparing newborns’ neural response to Standard and Deviant sounds differently for consonant (i.e., Fifth) and dissonant (i.e., Tritone) chords.
Results show that consonant stimuli elicit an adult-like negative mismatch response (MM-R) while dissonant elicit a positive mismatch response (MMR-p). Previous studies suggest that the polarity of MMR is modulated by several factor, including newborns development stage and the similarity between presented stimuli and native language.
Our prelaminar result show different mechanism to process consonance and, crucially, consonant stimuli appear to elicit an adult-like MMR-N, which we speculate could guarantee an evolutionary advantage tuning newborns to stimuli similar to human voice spectra.
| Names, affilations and contact information | 1)University of Turin 2) Neonatal Unit of the University, City of Health and Science of Turin |
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| Bio | I am a third-year PhD student in Neuroscience in the Brain plasticity and behaviour changes group (BIP) at the University of Turin, headed by Irene Ronga. My research focuses on the relationship between aesthetic experience and learning dynamic according to a predictive coding perspective. |