Rotadom
Satan's Plaything
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2017
- Posts
- 7,032
Some good discussion on reddit.
Newborn babies’ brain waves are in tune with the language they were exposed to most often in utero.
Human babies pick up language at an exceptional pace during their first year of life,
but it has mostly been a mystery whether exposure to language before birth primes their brains
to acquire a specific language. Now, new research in Science Advances suggests that
newborn babies' brain waves are in tune with the language they were exposed to most often in utero.
"These results provide the most compelling evidence to date that language experience
already shapes the functional organization of the infant brain, even before birth," the authors write.
Although most newborns are considered "universal listeners" — equipped to learn any possible
human language — by their first birthday, babies' brains become specialized for the sounds of their
native language. While this first year is pivotal for language development, research suggests that
prenatal experience may also help lay the groundwork for auditory and speech perception.
Between five and seven months of gestation, a fetus can begin to hear sounds outside of the womb.
Just days after birth, infants have shown that they prefer their mother's voice and native language.
Newborns can also recognize rhythms and melodies heard in utero, and prenatal exposure to music
may help them to develop musical abilities. But it has been unclear whether the same can be said for language.
Now, Benedetta Mariani, Ph.D. student at the Padova Neuroscience Center at the University of Padova,
and colleagues have found that sleeping babies who were most recently exposed to their mother's native
language exhibited brain signals associated with long-term speech and language learning.
Newborn babies’ brain waves are in tune with the language they were exposed to most often in utero.
Human babies pick up language at an exceptional pace during their first year of life,
but it has mostly been a mystery whether exposure to language before birth primes their brains
to acquire a specific language. Now, new research in Science Advances suggests that
newborn babies' brain waves are in tune with the language they were exposed to most often in utero.
"These results provide the most compelling evidence to date that language experience
already shapes the functional organization of the infant brain, even before birth," the authors write.
Although most newborns are considered "universal listeners" — equipped to learn any possible
human language — by their first birthday, babies' brains become specialized for the sounds of their
native language. While this first year is pivotal for language development, research suggests that
prenatal experience may also help lay the groundwork for auditory and speech perception.
Between five and seven months of gestation, a fetus can begin to hear sounds outside of the womb.
Just days after birth, infants have shown that they prefer their mother's voice and native language.
Newborns can also recognize rhythms and melodies heard in utero, and prenatal exposure to music
may help them to develop musical abilities. But it has been unclear whether the same can be said for language.
Now, Benedetta Mariani, Ph.D. student at the Padova Neuroscience Center at the University of Padova,
and colleagues have found that sleeping babies who were most recently exposed to their mother's native
language exhibited brain signals associated with long-term speech and language learning.
