The mismatch negativity to changes in speech sounds at the age of three months

Abstract

This study shows that an infrequent vowel (deviant) presented among frequent vowels (standard) elicits in awake 3‐month‐old infants a negativity in the auditory event‐related potential resembling the mismatch negativity elicited by the same stimuli in previous studies in adults (Aaltonen, Niemi, Nyrke, &Tuhkanen, 1987) and newborns (Cheour‐Luhtanen et al., 1995). The mismatch negativity amplitude for the deviant vowels was larger and the event‐related potentials to standard stimuli were in general more positive in 3‐month‐old infants than in newborns, which might reflect increased maturation of their nervous system relative to that of newborns.