Development of auditory phase-locked activity for music sounds

The auditory cortex undergoes anatomical and functional development that reflects specialization for learned sounds. Auditory maturation is evident in the transient auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) and auditory phase‐locked oscillatory activity. Development of AEPs and the phase‐locking strength of oscillatory auditory responses to piano, violin, and pure tones were examined. The hypothesis was that if oscillatory activity in different frequency bands reflects different aspects of sound processing, then the development of phase‐locking at these frequencies will have different maturational trajectories. Phase‐locking for theta (4–8 Hz), alpha (8–14 Hz), lower‐to‐mid‐beta (14–25 Hz), and upper beta and gamma (25–70 Hz) bands strengthened with age and was stronger for musical than pure tones. The phase‐locking increase for gamma and upper beta bands mainly reflected the maturation of the spectral representations for sounds. In contrast, increase in phase‐locking for theta, alpha, and lower‐to‐mid‐beta was m...