Irish Wedding News
02/09/2013
Scientists in Finland have claimed babies still in the womb develop a memory of words it frequently hears.
The study, which has been reported in the Medical Express, claims that babies remember sounds they heard in the womb, despite the fact that when they first heard them as foetuses, their brains were still developing any connections that allow them to process thoughts or external sensations.
There is evidence that already suggests foetuses can learn and babies can recall songs or passes from books read to them before they were born, but this study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers chose to expose Finnish unborn babies to one word – 'tatata'. It does not have a meaning, but follows the rules of the Finnish language.
Professor Minna Huotilainen, from the University of Helsinki, said the pseudo-word was chosen because it has three syllables in order to make it difficult for babies to detect subtle changes within the word and give them something challenging to learn.
For the study, 33 women took part from the 29th week of their pregnancy until the birth of their child. Half of the participants listened to recordings of the word hundreds of times, but there were occasions when the recorded voice pronounced it differently and even mixed in another pseudo word – 'tatota'.
According to the study, after the births, those who had been exposed to the word in the womb "showed an enhanced reaction to this specific word" and were able to detect changes in the word better than the babies who had not heard it before.
Professor Huotilainen, of the University of Helsinki, said: "It is a sign of very early language learning, or adaptation to the sounds they heard."
In response, Patricia Kuhl, a speech researcher from the University of Washington, added: "The fact that learning from frequently presented sounds occurs while infants are still in the womb means that language learning does not begin on Day 1 at the moment of birth, but while the infant listens to sounds in utero. It's really quite amazing that the fetal brain has that capacity."
(JP/CD)
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Babies Can Hear In The Womb – Study
New research has suggested that parents to talk and sing to their unborn baby could be helping to give them a head start when it comes to developing the child's language skills.Scientists in Finland have claimed babies still in the womb develop a memory of words it frequently hears.
The study, which has been reported in the Medical Express, claims that babies remember sounds they heard in the womb, despite the fact that when they first heard them as foetuses, their brains were still developing any connections that allow them to process thoughts or external sensations.
There is evidence that already suggests foetuses can learn and babies can recall songs or passes from books read to them before they were born, but this study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers chose to expose Finnish unborn babies to one word – 'tatata'. It does not have a meaning, but follows the rules of the Finnish language.
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Professor Minna Huotilainen, from the University of Helsinki, said the pseudo-word was chosen because it has three syllables in order to make it difficult for babies to detect subtle changes within the word and give them something challenging to learn.
For the study, 33 women took part from the 29th week of their pregnancy until the birth of their child. Half of the participants listened to recordings of the word hundreds of times, but there were occasions when the recorded voice pronounced it differently and even mixed in another pseudo word – 'tatota'.
According to the study, after the births, those who had been exposed to the word in the womb "showed an enhanced reaction to this specific word" and were able to detect changes in the word better than the babies who had not heard it before.
Professor Huotilainen, of the University of Helsinki, said: "It is a sign of very early language learning, or adaptation to the sounds they heard."
In response, Patricia Kuhl, a speech researcher from the University of Washington, added: "The fact that learning from frequently presented sounds occurs while infants are still in the womb means that language learning does not begin on Day 1 at the moment of birth, but while the infant listens to sounds in utero. It's really quite amazing that the fetal brain has that capacity."
(JP/CD)
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