Early maturation of neural auditory novelty detection - Typical development with no major effects of dyslexia risk or music intervention

Abstract

<p><b>Objective</b></p><p>To determine the early development of novelty detection and the effect of familial dyslexia risk and infant music intervention on this development.</p><p><b>Methods</b></p><p>In the longitudinal DyslexiaBaby study, we investigated the maturation of novelty-P3 and late-discriminative negativity (LDN) event-related potentials to novel sounds at birth (N = 177) and at the ages of 6 (N = 83) and 28 months (N = 131).</p><p><b>Results</b></p><p>Novelty-P3 was elicited at all ages, whereas LDN was elicited at 6 and 28 months. Novelty-P3 amplitude was largest at 6 months, and its latency decreased with age. LDN amplitude decreased and latency increased between 6 to 28 months. Dyslexia risk or intervention had no effects, apart from a longer LDN latency in the high-risk than no-risk group.</p><p><b>Conclusions</b></p><p>Already neonates respond to novel environmental sounds, indicating prerequisites for detecting potentially relevant events at birth. Maturation influences neural novelty detection.</p><p><b>Significance</b></p><p>Novelty detection is crucial for perceiving important events, but its early development has been scarcely studied. We found, with a large sample, that neonates detect novel events, and showed the developmental pattern of its neural signature. The results serve as a reference for studies on typical and atypical novelty-detection development in infancy when behavioral testing is challenging.</p>