Newborns can distinguish between different voice pitches. However, there is a difference as to what newborns can distinguish when it comes to high-pitched voices and low-pitched voices, all of which may stem from hearing development and what is heard in the womb, according to a new study.

According to researchers from the Institute of Neurosciences of the UB and the Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute, babies can detect differences between voice pitches as soon as they are born. In fact, some of the frequencies can be distinguished between as well as adults.

This was determined by recording the frequency-following response (FFR) which is "responsible for the perception of voice pitch" and whether it is high or low and the "spectral and temporal fine structure" which deals with the tone of the spoken language and how it rises and falls, according to EurekAlert!

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The study, published in Scientific Reports, is the first of its kind to measure the spectral and temporal fine structure in newborns. To do this, researchers had to come up with a new method of measuring if newborns were able to detect tone and intonation when hearing the language being spoken, according to Medical Xpress.

Researchers developed a new stimulus, according to Bioengineer.org, that allowed for the FFR to still be used to measure voice pitch, tone, and the rise and fall of language on the 34 babies who participated in the study.

What researchers found was that newborns were able to detect changes in the pitch of voice at lower decibels but had a harder time distinguishing the differences at higher ones.

The reasoning behind this discovery researchers surmised was because of how the cochlea develops while still in utero.

Though the cochlea continues to develop until birth, at the early stages of development, around 26-weeks gestation, it can hear the lower-pitched frequencies. However, the higher-pitched frequencies, which are related to tone and intonation, according to the study, are only able to be heard when the cochlea is fully formed.

As such, while the babies have had weeks to develop the part of the cochlea that hears the lower frequencies, there has been no time to develop to detect higher frequencies. Therefore, newborns are unable to discern these frequencies with any regularity until the cochlea is more mature and developed to experience them for a period of time outside of the womb, according to EurekAlert!

Newborns will undergo a hearing test to determine any hearing issues while they are still in the hospital after they are born. This test, however, only determines if the newborn's auditory nerve and brain stem are functioning properly, according to the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. The test will not determine whether there will be problems with developing language later in life.

However, researchers believe that by taking the results of newborns and running the same test on children as they age, they may be able to see if "literary difficulties" exist, according to Medical Xpress. 

Currently, researchers are doing just that with their original 34 participants who are now 21 months old. The hope is that if there are irregularities noted early intervention can be implemented to fix the difficulties that exist, and the child will be better off when the time comes to mastering the spoken and written language.

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Source: Medical Xpress, EurekAlert!, Scientific Reports, Bioengineer.org, National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders