When during development do our brains get tuned to the human voice?

Abstract

In the previous issue of Social Neuroscience, Lloyd-Fox and colleagues (2012) provide evidence that voice-sensitivity in temporal cortex emerges between 4 and 7 months of age. We discuss the implications of these findings and the overall progress that has been made in understanding the development of voice processing in infancy. In this commentary, we also examine important methodological and theoretical issues raised by this new work in the emerging field of developmental social neuroscience.

Keywords:

• Voice
• Temporal cortex
• fNIRS
• fMRI