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The Neural Reality of Pitch Chroma in Early Infancy.

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Title: The Neural Reality of Pitch Chroma in Early Infancy.
Authors: Gennari, Giulia (AUTHOR), Dehaene‐Lambertz, Ghislaine (AUTHOR)
Source: Developmental Science. Jul2025, Vol. 28 Issue 4, p1-15. 15p.
Subjects: Audio frequency, Electroencephalography, Infants, Psychologists, Encoding
Abstract: At the physical level, the experience of pitch has a single determinant: the repetition rate of a waveform in the acoustic signal. Yet, psychologists describe pitch as composed of two perceptual dimensions, height and chroma. Chroma accounts for octave equivalence, whereby sounds with fundamental frequencies at a 1:2 ratio are perceived as sharing the same pitch. A current controversy debates whether chroma is a basic perceptual property dependent on biological constraints or a higher‐order cognitive construct shaped by culture. Here, we used high‐density electroencephalography (EEG) and time‐resolved multivariate pattern analyses to characterize pitch processing in humans at 3 months of age. We found that, when exposed to repetitive sequences of orchestral tones, infants encode two separate pitch‐related dimensions automatically and with divergent dynamics. Namely, our classifiers isolated height‐specific information from the neural signal rapidly after the onset of the auditory sequences. Beyond approximately 600 ms, the performance of pitch height decoders fell to chance level and did not recover. In contrast, neural patterns displaying octave equivalence were retrieved later in the trial, over multiple time windows throughout the unfolding of the auditory sequence, and after sequence offset. Overall, this study reveals that very early in human development, the pitch of naturally rich tones is processed over two distinct encoding stages, capturing not only their absolute height but also their relative position in the octave. We speculate that separate encoding mechanisms reflect distinct functional roles carried by the two dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Developmental Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Gennari%2C+Giulia%22">Gennari, Giulia</searchLink> (AUTHOR)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Dehaene‐Lambertz%2C+Ghislaine%22">Dehaene‐Lambertz, Ghislaine</searchLink> (AUTHOR)
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Developmental+Science%22">Developmental Science</searchLink>. Jul2025, Vol. 28 Issue 4, p1-15. 15p.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Audio+frequency%22">Audio frequency</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Electroencephalography%22">Electroencephalography</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Infants%22">Infants</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Psychologists%22">Psychologists</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Encoding%22">Encoding</searchLink>
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  Data: At the physical level, the experience of pitch has a single determinant: the repetition rate of a waveform in the acoustic signal. Yet, psychologists describe pitch as composed of two perceptual dimensions, height and chroma. Chroma accounts for octave equivalence, whereby sounds with fundamental frequencies at a 1:2 ratio are perceived as sharing the same pitch. A current controversy debates whether chroma is a basic perceptual property dependent on biological constraints or a higher‐order cognitive construct shaped by culture. Here, we used high‐density electroencephalography (EEG) and time‐resolved multivariate pattern analyses to characterize pitch processing in humans at 3 months of age. We found that, when exposed to repetitive sequences of orchestral tones, infants encode two separate pitch‐related dimensions automatically and with divergent dynamics. Namely, our classifiers isolated height‐specific information from the neural signal rapidly after the onset of the auditory sequences. Beyond approximately 600 ms, the performance of pitch height decoders fell to chance level and did not recover. In contrast, neural patterns displaying octave equivalence were retrieved later in the trial, over multiple time windows throughout the unfolding of the auditory sequence, and after sequence offset. Overall, this study reveals that very early in human development, the pitch of naturally rich tones is processed over two distinct encoding stages, capturing not only their absolute height but also their relative position in the octave. We speculate that separate encoding mechanisms reflect distinct functional roles carried by the two dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Developmental Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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        Text: English
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              Text: Jul2025
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