Development of auditory and spontaneous movement responses to music over the first postnatal year
- Author(s)
- Trinh Nguyen, Félix Bigand, Susanne Reisner, Atesh Koul, Roberta Bianco, Gabriela Markova, Stefanie Hoehl, Giacomo Novembre
- Abstract
Humans across cultures not only share the ability to recognise music but also respond to it through movement. While the sensory encoding of music is well-studied, when and how infants naturally start moving to music is largely unexplored. This study simultaneously investigates infants' neural (auditory) responses and spontaneous movements to music during the first postnatal year. Neural activity (EEG) and body kinematics (markerless pose estimation) were recorded from 79 infants (aged 3, 6, and 12 months) listening to refrains of children's music, along with shuffled, high-pitched, and low-pitched versions of the same songs. Neural data revealed that, across all ages, infants exhibit enhanced auditory responses to music compared to shuffled music, indicating that auditory encoding of music emerges early in development. Movement data revealed a different outcome. While coarse auditory-motor coupling is present at all ages, more complex structured movement patterns emerge in response to music only by 12 months. Notably, no age group demonstrated evidence of coordinated movements to music. Additionally, enhanced auditory responses to high vs low pitch were only evident at 6 months, while infants' movements were better predicted by high-pitched compared to low-pitched music at all ages. This study provides initial insights into how the developing brain gradually transforms music into spontaneous movements of increasing complexity.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology
- External organisation(s)
- Italian Institute of Technology, University of Heidelberg, Doctoral School Cognition, Behavior and Neuroscience, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria., University of Pisa, University Hospital of the Paracelsus Medical University
- Journal
- eLife
- Volume
- 14
- ISSN
- 2050-084X
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.107088
- Publication date
- 07-2026
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 501005 Developmental psychology
- Keywords
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/0f600546-04f7-4695-a64a-653b7f06dcab