Re: Innate responses to sound

[Martin Braun <nombraun@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Ross and others,

> I am looking for papers (or books) on responses to sound that are likely
> to be innate in humans.

I assume that most of us would agree with the description that in
humans the ability of "conscious", i.e. post-cognitive, control of
breathing is innate.

An analogue status of innateness has been observed for the human
auditory abilities of absolute pitch (AP) and relative pitch (RP).

Unfortunately, the innateness of both AP and RP has often been missed
in the literature, because the focus has usually been on cognitive
versions of AP and RP. These cognitive versions can only develop after
some kind of contact with musical culture.

We should bear in mind, though, that almost all children easily learn
to generalize their mothers' speech intonation intervals, even when
they are largely down-transposed by male adults or largely
high-transposed by other children.

Martin

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Martin Braun
Neuroscience of Music
S-671 95 KlÃssbol
Sweden
web site: http://w1.570.telia.com/~u57011259/index.htm