BYU study: Infants can tell happy songs from sad

A new Brigham Young University study shows that 5-month-old babies can

distinguish an upbeat tune, such as "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth

Symphony, from a lineup of gloomier compositions.By age 9 months, babies can do the opposite and pick out the

sorrowful sound of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony from a pack of happy

pieces.The musical experiments offer another example of how babies make sense

of the world long before they can talk, said BYU psychology professor

and study author Ross Flom."One of the first things babies understand communicatively is

emotion, so for them the melody is the message," he said. "Our study

showed that by nine months, babies are categorizing songs as happy or

sad the same way that preschoolers and adults do."

This story is provided by the LDS Church News, an

official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day

Saints. It is produced weekly by the Deseret News.

The contents of each week's edition of LDS Church News are available to subscribers online at

ldschurchnews.com.