Babies are able to give response to feelings in a human voice when they are just 3 month old.

The findings of scan conducted on 21 sleeping babies revealed that their brain reacted to the various sounds played.

The scientists told that before it was not clear when human brains progressed to receive voice and feelings.

The researchers are hoping to gather some knowledge about the difference in the method of development of autistic and non autistic brains.

They utilized functional magnetic-resonance imaging (fMRI) to document the way of response of the babies to tapes playing “emotional sounds” like laughing and crying along with background noises such as water or toys.

The temporal cortex- a part of brain- was triggered when human voices played- the same area as in adults.

‘Progress in Learning’

The limbic brain area reacted powerfully to negative or sad sounds but didn’t distinguish among neutral and happy sounds.

Professor Declan Murphy, from King’s College London, said: “This discovery fundamentally advances our understanding of infant development.”

Dr Evelyne Mercure, of University College London, said: “It is a rare demonstration that specialized areas exist in the brain very early in development.”

The examiners expect that this research will help them in contrasting between autistic and non-autistic brains.

Professor Murphy told the BBC: “By identifying when brain systems come on stream, we can understand where it goes wrong.”

The scientists scanned the babies’ brains which were suspected of developing autism like the ones who have their siblings with the same risk.

They are researching when this dissimilarity can be noticed.