The ability to learn structural regularities is fundamental for the acquisition of language. There is increasing evidence that older infants are able to learn such regularities using different mechanisms(Marcus et al. 1999, Gomez and Gerken 1999). However, it is not know whether these abilities are available at birth or whether they emerge later during development and their neural basis is also unexplored. Therefore, in a series of NIRS studies with newborns, we examined whether they are able to learn identity-based regularities (e.g. ABB "mubaba", AAB "babamu", ABA "bamuba" etc.). Specifically, we explored whether (i) they are able to discriminate these patterns from random ABC controls (e.g. "mubage"), (ii) whether they are able to encode the identity relation as well as its serial position (i.e. whether they are able to discriminate AAB from ABB) and (iii) whether this ability is specific to speech stimuli or whether it applies more broadly to other auditory stimuli, e.g. piano tones. The results of these experiments allow us to better understand the mechanisms and the corresponding neural circuits underlying early speech perception and language acquisition.