Subject: Re: Innate responses to sound From: Martin Braun <nombraun@xxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 15:44:13 +0200Dear 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin Braun Neuroscience of Music S-671 95 Klässbol Sweden web site: http://w1.570.telia.com/~u57011259/index.htm