International Journal of Psychophysiology 52 (2004) 257–266

Cerebral processing of mother’s voice compared to unfamiliar

voice in 4-month-old infants
Maija Purhonena,*, Riitta Kilpelainen-Lees
¨ b
, Minna Valkonen-Korhonena, Jari Karhub,
Johannes Lehtonena
a
Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, P.O. Box 1777, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland
b
Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Kuopio University Hospital, P.O. Box 1777, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland

Received 1 April 2003; received in revised form 4 November 2003; accepted 6 November 2003

Abstract

In order to investigate the neurophysiological mechanisms related to the infant’s preference of maternal stimuli
over other stimuli, auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in responses to the mother’s voice and to
a voice of an unfamiliar female in 15 infants at the age of 4 months. Stimuli were presented in intermittent and
alternating trains of four identical stimuli (mother’s voice or an unfamiliar voice). A significant amplitude difference
was observed in the responses. This was seen as a negative ‘shift’ in the responses to mother’s voice after
approximately 350 ms. The finding suggests that the infants allocate more attention to process their own mothers’
voices compared to unfamiliar voices and it may work in favor of establishing and strengthening an emotional tie
between the infant and its mother.
䊚 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Auditory event-related potential (ERP); Infant; Human stimuli; Mother’s voice; Mother–infant interaction; Subject
matched stimuli

1. Introduction up a schema of this perception, and creates a

During development, infants’ perceptions are
suggested to be established through repetitive
encountering of the same stimuli. Infants actively
observe and communicate with their surroundings
and seek mutual interaction with other humans to
facilitate this developmental process. Repeated
encountering and perception of similar stimuli in
different occasions and contexts gradually builds
*Corresponding author. Tel.: q358-17-17-2929, q358-17-
361 4483; fax: q358-17-17-3549.
E-mail address: maija.purhonen@kuh.fi (M. Purhonen).
model against which perceptions of other stimuli
may be compared (Stern, 1985).
From birth newborns have preferences with
regard to the sensations they seek (Stern, 1985).
They seem to be attracted to human stimuli,
especially those coming from the mother. It is
shown that by the age of 3 days infants are able
to recognize the smell of their own mother’s milk
(Stern, 1985) and discriminate mother’s voice
(DeCasper and Fifer, 1980) from that of other
females. This preference seems natural since the
individual development is based on the interaction

0167-8760/04/$ - see front matter 䊚 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2003.11.003
258 M. Purhonen et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 52 (2004) 257–266
between the infant and the caretakers (Bowlby,
1991; Stern, 1985).
The neurophysiology of infant–mother interac-
tion is poorly understood, partly because of the
difficulty in studying young human subjects. Brain
physiology related to cognitive processes can be
studied in humans with event-related potentials
(ERPs). ERPs are small electrical potentials that
can be recorded non-invasively from human scalp.
They result from change in the ongoing electrical
activity of neuronal networks in response to stim-
ulation of a sensory pathway, or as a result of a
cognitive process. In general, the auditory ERPs
of a new-born and an infant have no resemblance
to the adult ERP waveform (Kushnerenko et al.,
2001). For example the N100 component, reflect-
ing activation of the auditory cortex approximately
100 ms after stimulus (Naatanen¨¨ ¨ and Picton,
1987), is not reliably obtained in children before
6 years of age (Goodin et al., 1978). During
infancy the ERP waveforms increase in complex-
ity, the ERP peak amplitudes increase and the
latencies shorten with increasing age (Kushneren-
ko et al., 2001). In infants, speech stimuli evoke
positivity at a latency of approximately 85–120
ms and negativity at approximately 200–400 ms
(Shibasaki and Miyazaki, 1992) reflecting detec-
tion of a stimulus and processing of stimulus
features in the cortex.
When a stimulus is presented to infants repeat-
edly in a behavioural setting, they will in general
respond to it progressively less as the original
stimulus loses its novelty (Stern, 1985). Electro-
physiologically, stimulus repetition results in a
generation of a neural representation of the repeat-
ed stimulus in the cortex, also called a ‘memory
trace’ of the stimulus. This trace becomes stronger
¨¨ ¨
with further repetitions (Naatanen, 1990). In
infants, repetition of spoken syllables causes
amplitude decrement in ERP components at
approximately 200 ms and at 400 ms (Dehaene-
Lambertz and Dehaene, 1994). This amplitude
decrement likely results from the refractory prop-
erties of activated neuronal populations to further
stimulation (Picton and Hillyard, 1988), and loss
of arousal when the novelty value of the stimulus
¨¨ ¨
decreases with repetition (Naatanen and Picton,
1987). However, besides the effect of repetition a
number of variables modulate the amount of atten-
tion a stimulus allocates. Subjectively, significant
‘signal stimuli’ tend to elicit strong orientation
reactions and the orientation reaction attenuates
more slowly with the repetition compared to indif-
ferent stimulus (Sokolov et al., 2002).
In order to study how infants process their own
mother’s voice and to compare it with the proc-
essing of an unfamiliar human voice, we studied
auditory ERPs to mother’s voice and to an unfa-
miliar female’s voice in 4 month old infants. Both
stimuli were delivered in sequences composed of
intermittent trains of the same stimulus type. In
order to simulate real life situations, were the
model of a certain stimulus is build up by encoun-
tering this stimulus in different occasions, the
sequences were repeated one after the other in an
alternating manner. We assumed that during the
study session a neural model is build up for both
stimulus types. However, the experiences and fam-
iliarisation towards mother’s voice in real life
before the study session makes it anyhow more
familiar compared to the other voice, heard for the
first time during the experiment. On the basis of
this proportional familiarity of mother’s voice
compared to the other voice, the well known
infants preference to maternal stimuli over other
stimuli, and the fact that significant stimuli tend
to attract attention, we hypothesized that mother’s
voice might allocate more attention in general
leading to higher ERP amplitudes, and to show
less amplitude decrement with stimulus repetition.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Subjects
Fifteen (seven boys and eight girls) healthy
four-month-old infants (average 114 days, range
101–134) were studied with the approval of the
local ethical committee. Informed consent was
received from the parents.
Of the 15 infants studied, three fell asleep during
the recording and were excluded from the statisti-
cal analysis.
2.2. Stimuli and procedure
ERPs were recorded in response to digitized
word stimuli spoken either by the infant’s own
 M. Purhonen et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 52 (2004) 257–266
mother or by an unfamiliar female voice. The
stimulus consisted of the Finnish word ‘hei’, mean-
ing ‘hi’ and pronounced ‘hay’. A standard un-
familiar female voice (stimulus duration 250 ms)
was used for all infants. Several ‘hei’ stimuli
spoken by the infant’s mother were recorded prior
to the ERP study, and the recording physically best
matching the standard unfamiliar female voice
stimulus, and lasting approximately 250 ms (aver-
age 238 ms, range 210–256 ms) was used in the
study.
Fig. 1 shows the pattern of stimulus presenta-
tion. Stimuli were presented in sequences that
consisted of four trains of four identical stimuli
(mother’s voice or unfamiliar female’s voice).
This sequence was followed by a similar sequence
using the other stimulus (mother’s or unfamiliar
female’s voice). Both sequences were repeated 10
times in an alternating manner. The inter-stimulus
interval (ISI) was 1 s and the inter-train interval
(ITI) was 12 s.
The recordings were made in a quiet laboratory.
The stimuli were presented to the right ear through
an inserted earphone. In order to keep the infants
feeling safe, they were held by their mother during
the recording.
2.3. Data collection and analysis
The EEG was recorded with disposable-elec-
trodes from parietal, central and frontal midline
sites (Pz, Cz and Fz) and left and right central
and temporal sites (C3, T3 and C4, T4) of the
international 10–20 system. All electrodes were
referred to the right mastoid.
Potentials registering vertical eye movements
were recorded between electrodes placed above
and below the right eye, and those registering
horizontal eye movements between electrodes
placed at the outer canthus of each eye. EEG and
eye movement signals were amplified and filtered
by a Synamp amplifier at 0.5–100 Hz. All signals
were digitized continuously at 250 Hz by a Neu-
roscan Acquisition System PyN 1098. Trigger
pulses from a Neuroscan Stim Audio System PyN
1105 controlling stimuli were stored with the
electrophysiological data.
259
The continuous data were transformed off-line
to epochs of y100 to 900 ms relative to the onset
of each stimulus. Epochs containing eye movement
artefacts were rejected using both automatic ("75
mV) and manual checking of the data. The epochs
were digitally filtered with a low pass cut-off
frequency at 20 Hz, and the baseline was corrected
between 0 and 400 ms.
The responses were averaged in two different
ways. (See also Fig. 1). First, all responses to the
same type of stimulus (mother’s voice or the
unfamiliar voice) were averaged resulting in two
different ‘grand averaged’ responses, and second,
responses were averaged according to the number
of the stimulus in the train (the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and
4th) resulting in four ‘subaverage’ responses to
both mother’s voice and to the unfamiliar voice.
The midline electrodes Fz, Cz and lateral tem-
poral electrodes C3 and C4 were chosen for
statistical analysis. These channels were selected
as visual inspection of the responses showed the
amplitude differences to be greatest at these sites.
The amplitudes were measured as the maximum
peak deflection from baseline and the peaks were
labeled according to their latency and polarity. We
used the same latency ranges as used in previous
infant studies (Kushnerenko et al., 2001). The
N250 peak was measured between 180 and 280
ms, P350 peak between 250 and 400 ms and N450
peak between 350 and 600 ms from stimulus onset.
2.4. Statistical analyses of data
All statistical analyses were computed with the
SPSS for Windows 9.0 statistical program. Repeat-
ed measures anovas, separately for each peak
(N250, P350, N450) were applied to both the
amplitude and latency data with stimulus type
(mother’s voice vs. unfamiliar voice) and channels
(Fz, Cz, C3 and C4) as within-subject factors for
the grand averaged waveforms. The corresponding
models for subaverages had stimulus type (moth-
er’s voice vs. unfamiliar voice), running number
of stimulus on the train (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th
presentations of the stimuli), and channels (Fz,
Cz, C3 and C4) as within-subject factors. When
spherical assumptions were not fulfilled the Green-
house-Geisser correction was used. Significant dif-
260 M. Purhonen et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 52 (2004) 257–266

Fig. 1. The stimulus presentation and averaging protocol used and the respective event-related potentials for Grand Averaged
waveforms and for Subaverages. Two stimulus types (mother’s voice and unfamiliar voice) were used. Both stimulus types were
presented in trains of four identical stimuli. The train was repeated four times thus forming a sequence. Corresponding sequences
for mother’s voice and for unfamiliar voice were repeated one after the other in an alternating manner. The ERPs for Grand Averaged
waveforms are shown at FZ, CZ, C3 and C4 and for Subaverages at CZ only. The numbers I–IV under the ERPS for Subaverages
show the ordinal stimulus number within a stimulus train. Black lines for mother’s voice and grey lines for unfamiliar voice.
 M. Purhonen et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 52 (2004) 257–266 261

ferences were followed up with paired t-tests. The Table 2

level of significance was defined as PF0.05. Mean N250, P350 and N450 peak amplitudes at grand aver-
aged waveforms for mother’s and unfamiliar voice
3. Results Peak Channel Mother’s voice Unfamiliar voice

Mother’s voice and the unfamiliar voice elicited Mean (uV) S.D. Mean (uV) S.D.
waveforms with similar configuration, in which N250 Fz y3.74 2.84 y3.97 2.55
the ERP peaks N250, P350 and N450 were clearly Cz y5.06 1.75 y4.62 2.65
identifiable. Fig. 1 shows the grand averaged and C3 y4.14 3.71 y4.98 4.05
C4 y4.56 3.71 y4.21 3.36
subaverage ERPs in response to mother’s and
unfamiliar female’s voice. P350 Fz 3.33 1.54 4.08 1.75
Cz 3.40 2.15 4.51 1.38
C3 4.91 2.20 6.59 3.43
3.1. Grand averaged waveforms C4 4.41 3.10 5.46 2.53

A summary of statistical analysis for grand N450 Fz y1.60 1.78 y1.30 2.71
Cz y2.47 2.68 y1.53 2.36
averaged waveforms is shown in Table 1 and mean C3 y4.99 2.23 y3.52 2.18
peak amplitudes are shown in Table 2. C4 y2.56 2.88 y1.38 2.92
There was a main effect for both stimulus type
and for channel on the P350 and N450 amplitudes,
the P350 amplitude being smaller and the N450 P350 and N450 amplitudes were highest for both
amplitude being higher in response to the mothers’ stimulus types at C3 and lowest at Fz. For latencies
than to the unfamiliar voice at all channels. The there was a main effect for channel for P350
post hoc paired samples T-test showed that the latencies. Mean P350 latencies are shown in Table
difference between the stimulus types was signifi- 3. For both stimulus types, the latencies were
cant for P350 amplitude at C3 (Ps0.044) and for shortest at C3. There were no other statistically
N450 at C3 (Ps0.034) and C4 (Ps0.041). The significant differences concerning the analysis of

Table 1
A summary of statistical analysis for grand averaged waveforms

Within-subjects effects Source df1, df2 Epsilon F Sig.

N250 amplitude Stimulus type 1, 11 1.000 0.014 ns.
Channel 3, 33 0.671 1.016 ns.
Stimulus type=channel 3, 33 0.677 1.588 ns.
P350 amplitude Stimulus type 1, 11 1.000 4.938 0.048
Channel 3, 33 0.753 4.531 0.009
Stimulus type=channel 3, 33 0.794 0.533 ns.
N450 amplitude Stimulus type 1, 11 1.000 5.200 0.044
Channel 3, 33 0.724 17.166 -0.001
Stimulus type=channel 3, 33 0.786 0.909 ns.
N250 latency Stimulus type 1, 11 1.000 0.057 ns.
Channel 3, 33 0.682 0.462 ns.
Stimulus type=channel 3, 33 0.643 0.376 ns.
P350 latency Stimulus type 1, 11 1.000 0.002 ns.
Channel 3, 33 0.795 4.269 0.012
Stimulus type=channel 3, 33 0.674 0.755 ns.
N450 latency Stimulus type 1, 11 1.000 0.007 ns.
Channel 3, 33 0.747 0.546 ns.
Stimulus type=channel 3, 33 0.719 0.425 ns.
262 M. Purhonen et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 52 (2004) 257–266
Table 3
Mean P350 latencies of grand averaged waveforms
Channel Mother’s voice Unfamiliar voice
Mean (ms) S.D. Mean (ms)
Fz 335 30.36 335
Cz 353 66.95 338
C3 312 24.09 316
C4 327 31.51 335
amplitudes or latencies of the grand averaged
waveforms.
3.2. Subaverages
A summary of statistical analysis for subavera-
ges is shown in Table 4 and the mean peak
amplitudes of subaverages within a train are shown
in Table 5.
There was a main effect for channel on P350
and N450 amplitudes, the peak amplitudes to be
highest for both stimulus types and during all
repetitions at C3. The only exception was the 4th
repetition of mother’s voice where the P350 peak
amplitude was highest at Cz. For latencies, there
was a main channel effect on P350 latencies. Mean
P350 peak latencies of subaverages within a train
of four stimuli are shown in Table 6. These
latencies were shortest at C3 for both stimulus
types during all presentations. The N450 latency
had a main effect for stimulus number. Mean N450
peak latencies of subaverages within a train of
four stimuli are shown in Table 7. The latencies
of N450 peaks for both stimulus types changed
with repetition and increased between the 1st and
the 4th presentations.
4. Discussion
The present study utilized auditory ERPs to
assess whether 4 month-old infants, known to be
capable of recognizing their mothers from strang-
ers behaviorally, show differences in the auditory
processing of their mothers’ voices compared to a
voice of an unfamiliar female. Significant ampli-
tude differences were noted in the grand averaged
event-related potential waveforms elicited by these
two different voices after approximately 350 ms
of the stimulus onset.
The brain responses to speech sound are com-
plex and they are influenced by the physical
S.D. properties of the stimulus, the acoustic context in
35.93 which the stimulus is presented and the individu-
38.61 al’s perceptual experience with the signal as speech
32.65 (Kraus and Cheour, 2000). The present study
38.55
utilised natural human speech sounds spoken by
the infant’s own mother and an unfamiliar voice,
and thus the physical properties of the two voices
could not be exactly matched. However, the phys-
ical differences between the stimuli were made as
minimal as possible, and the stimulus context was
equal for both stimuli. It is thus unlikely that the
physical properties of the stimuli or the stimulus
context significantly affected the differences in
responses between the two stimulus types. It is
more likely that factors associated with the infant’s
previous experiences, and the known preference of
mother’s voice over other voices (DeCasper and
Fifer, 1980), elicited the found differences.
Significant stimuli in the environment are
known to attract attention without any voluntary
effort. Although all human stimuli tend to attract
an infant’s interest, from birth newborn infants
prefer stimuli coming from their own mother to
other human stimuli (DeCasper and Fifer, 1980).
It is thus possible in the present study that the
mother’s voice attracted attention over the unfa-
miliar voice, which may have caused the differ-
ences in the averaged waveforms. In ERPs,
attention causes a negative shift called processing
negativity in the response. In adults, this negative
enhancement starts during the descending limb of
N100 at approximately 150 ms, and it persists for
¨¨ ¨
at least 500 ms (Naatanen, 1990). In our results,
the difference in the responses between the two
stimulus types started at approximately 350 ms
after the stimulus onset during the positive deflec-
tion. Although no studies have been done to
document the time range of processing negativity
in infants, and as infant ERP components have a
different form compared to adult ERPs, a negative
shift like processing negativity could explain the
smaller P350 peak amplitudes and the higher N450
peak amplitudes in response to the mother’s voice
as compared to the unfamiliar voice. This might
 M. Purhonen et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 52 (2004) 257–266 263

Table 4
A summary of statistical analysis for subaverages

Within-Subjects Effects Source df1, df2 Epsilon F Sig.

Subaverages
N250 amplitude Stimulus type 1, 11 1.000 0.230 ns.
Stimulus number 3, 33 0.744 0.414 ns.
Channel 3, 33 0.656 0.381 ns.
Stimulus type=stimulus number 3, 33 0.856 0.134 ns.
Stimulus type=channel 3, 33 0.741 0.336 ns.
Stimulus number=channel 9, 99 0.500 0.883 ns.
Stimulus type=number=channel 9, 99 0.455 1.468 ns.
P350 amplitude Stimulus type 1, 11 1.000 3.166 ns.
Stimulus number 3, 33 0.811 0.255 ns.
Channel 3, 33 0.815 4.688 0.008
Stimulus type=stimulus number 3, 33 0.959 1.831 ns.
Stimulus type=channel 3, 33 0.859 1.514 ns.
Stimulus number=channel 9, 99 0.622 0.878 ns.
Stimulus type=number=channel 9, 99 0.511 0.763 ns.
N450 amplitude Stimulus type 1, 11 1.000 1.122 ns.
Stimulus number 3, 33 0.736 0.105 ns.
Channel 3, 33 0.912 17.163 -0.001
Stimulus type=stimulus number 3, 33 0.637 0.828 ns.
Stimulus type=channel 3, 33 0.876 0.723 ns.
Stimulus number=channel 9, 99 0.496 0.496 ns.
Stimulus type=number=channel 9, 99 0.527 1.126 ns.
N250 latency Stimulus type 1, 11 1.000 0.349 ns.
Stimulus number 3, 33 0.508 0.428 ns.
Channel 3, 33 0.802 2.836 ns.
Stimulus type=stimulus number 3, 33 0.609 0.861 ns.
Stimulus type=channel 3, 33 0.664 0.680 ns.
Stimulus number=channel 9, 99 0.388 0.820 ns.
Stimulus type=number=channel 9, 99 0.481 0.804 ns.
P350 latency Stimulus type 1, 11 1.000 3.734 ns.
Stimulus number 3, 33 0.822 2.131 ns.
Channel 3, 33 0.617 7.561 0.001
Stimulus type=stimulus number 3, 33 0.735 2.298 ns.
Stimulus type=channel 3, 33 0.731 1.490 ns.
Stimulus number=channel 9, 99 0.497 0.704 ns.
Stimulus type=number=channel 9, 99 0.478 1.075 ns.
N450 latency Stimulus type 1, 11 1.000 1.594 ns.
Stimulus number 3, 33 0.838 4.777 0.007
Channel 3, 33 0.747 2.776 ns.
Stimulus type=stimulus number 3, 33 0.828 0.690 ns.
Stimulus type=channel 3, 33 0.817 2.112 ns.
Stimulus number=channel 9, 99 0.515 1.771 ns.
Stimulus type=number=channel 9, 99 0.566 1.696 ns.

suggest that the difference was caused by alloca- order to clarify the role of attention in these
tion of more attentional resources in the processing findings in more detail.
of the mother’s voice compared to the unfamiliar Visual ERP studies also offer support for this
voice. However, more studies will be needed in view of maternal stimuli to allocate attention over
264 M. Purhonen et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 52 (2004) 257–266

Table 5
Mean peak amplitudes (uV) of subaverages within a train of four stimuli

Peak Channel Mother’s voice Unfamiliar voice

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
N250 Fz y4.83 y5.66 y4.57 y5.55 y6.47 y5.59 y5.34 y6.00
Cz y4.35 y6.83 y5.43 y6.93 y6.01 y5.98 y5.47 y6.74
C3 y5.58 y6.47 y4.86 y5.11 y4.77 y6.75 y6.30 y6.76
C4 y6.51 y5.95 y4.96 y6.07 y6.02 y6.33 y6.07 y5.77
P350 Fz 4.36 5.48 3.95 4.30 6.14 4.91 6.16 4.89
Cz 4.54 6.74 4.79 6.18 6.33 4.91 6.73 6.30
C3 6.52 7.78 5.70 4.95 8.28 7.32 8.24 7.80
C4 6.30 6.90 5.19 6.06 6.78 6.19 6.24 7.01
N450 Fz y2.04 y2.11 y3.48 y3.85 y3.44 y2.69 y2.31 y3.06
Cz y3.69 y3.80 y4.43 y2.64 y3.09 y3.91 y2.61 y4.24
C3 y5.63 y5.47 y7.31 y6.33 y5.21 y5.29 y4.30 y6.28
C4 y4.76 y4.54 y4.34 y3.67 y2.99 y4.03 y2.72 y4.10

Table 6
Mean P350 peak latencies (ms) of subaverages within a train of four stimuli

P350 Mother’s voice Unfamiliar voice

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Fz 315.67 314.00 330.67 331.33 323.33 330.00 356.00 354.67
Cz 322.67 319.00 333.33 334.67 329.00 333.67 350.67 358.33
C3 293.67 307.33 327.67 326.67 298.00 319.33 320.67 327.67
C4 336.33 315.00 346.00 343.00 327.00 345.00 340.33 347.33

Table 7
Mean N450 peak latencies (ms) of subaverages within a train of four stimuli

N450 Mother’s voice Unfamiliar voice

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Fz 406.67 432.67 472.00 475.00 471.00 430.33 483.67 493.67
Cz 416.00 461.33 468.00 446.33 446.67 446.67 480.33 495.67
C3 426.00 466.00 469.00 446.67 435.33 432.67 452.67 470.33
C4 448.33 453.00 468.00 477.67 455.67 483.67 487.00 517.33

unfamiliar stimuli in infants. Visual recognition
memory studies have shown that in ERPs a nega-
tive deflection called negative component (Nc)
reflecting attention allocation (Nelson, 1994) is
larger for the mother’s face compared to that for
unfamiliar face in children younger than 24 months
(de Haan et al., 2003). Interestingly, this attention
allocation effect changes with age as in children
older than 45 months ERPs to unfamiliar face
show a larger Nc compared to mother’s face
(Carver et al., 2003). This is interpreted to reflect
different developmental tasks during different ages.
In the beginning of life forming a relationship to
mother and building up a mental representation of
her are the main topics. Later, after establishing
these aims more recourse can be devoted to unfa-
miliar items.
With the exception of the N250 peak in response
to mother’s voice, all other peaks for both stimulus
types were of maximal amplitude in the contralat-
 M. Purhonen et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 52 (2004) 257–266
eral side to the ear of stimulation at the left central
electrode (C3). This finding is similar to previous
findings in adults that have shown that the N100
amplitudes are higher in the contralateral side to
¨¨ ¨
the ear of stimulation (Naatanen and Picton, 1987;
Pekkonen et al., 1999).
The analysis of the subaverages did not reveal
any statistically significant amplitude change with
stimulus repetition. This finding is different from
the well documented phenomenon of N100 ampli-
tude decline with stimulus repetition in adults
(Picton and Hillyard, 1988) and in older children
(Karhu et al., 1997). Dehaene-Lambertz et al.
have also demonstrated a similar amplitude reduc-
tion in infants at the age of 2 to 3 months
(Dehaene-Lambertz and Dehaene, 1994; Dehaene-
Lambertz and Baillet, 1998). In their studies, the
stimuli were delivered in trains of five stimuli,
with a stimulus onset asynchrony of 600 ms and
an intertrain interval of 3100 ms. Respectively, in
our study, the trains had four stimuli, the intersti-
mulus (ISI) interval was 1 s and the intertrain
interval (ITI) was 12 s. Thus, compared to their
studies we had fewer repetitions within a train,
longer silent periods between the stimuli within a
stimulus train and longer intertain intervals. These
differences in ISI and ITI possibly explain the
different findings in these two studies. It is known
that in adults, N100 amplitude is sensitive to the
¨¨ ¨
rate of stimulus repetition (Naatanen and Picton,
1987), but generally higher rates of stimulus pres-
entation strengthen the N100 amplitude decline
with repetition (Fruhstorfer et al., 1970).
The development of a child relies on both
genetic factors and experiences with the environ-
ment. As the development of the human brain is
relatively delayed compared with other mammals,
it is suggested to be more prone to the influences
of postnatal experiences (Johnson, 2001). In the
beginning, family members and especially the
mother are the most important caretakers and the
interplay between mother and infant is bi-direc-
tional (Stern, 1985). We have shown earlier that
few days after childbirth the mothers of the infants
who were studied in the present study showed an
increased level of arousal and alertness to own
infant’s cry and to other auditory human stimuli
(Purhonen et al., 2001). The present study suggests
265
that in infants, the mother’s voice is processed
differently from, and it may attract more attention
than an unfamiliar female’s voice. It is thus pos-
sible that the auditory processing may be altered
by the reciprocal sensitization between infant and
mother.
In conclusion, the present study shows that in
4-month-old infants, human word stimuli, identical
in content but spoken either by the infant’s own
mother or by an unfamiliar female give rise to a
brain response that have the same configuration
that differ in amplitude after approximately 350
ms. This difference may be due to a negative shift,
processing negativity, in the response elicited by
the mother’s voice, suggesting that the infants may
allocate more attention to process their own moth-
ers’ voices compared to unfamiliar voices. It may
work in favor of developing and strengthening an
emotional tie between the infant and its mother.
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by grants
from the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg foundation
and the Finnish Cultural Foundation. The authors
wish to thank Professor Seppo Saarikoski for his
help in enrolling the infants in the study and
statistician Pirjo Halonen and professor Pasi Kar-
jalainen for help with the analyses.
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