Posted on 11/01/2013 11:30:31 AM PDT by GonzoII
Scientists say babies remember lullabies played for them in the womb
by Kirsten Andersen
Thu Oct 31 11:52 AM EST
HELSINKI, Finland, October 31, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – There’s no shortage of products on the market designed to help parents expose their unborn babies to music. Experts and savvy marketers alike have long speculated that prenatal musical exposure might make babies smarter, or at least help them develop similar tastes to Mom and Dad. Others dismiss the “Mozart Effect” as a myth and a sales gimmick.
A new study out of Finland, however, may send sales of belly-mounted headphones skyrocketing, as researchers say they have found conclusive proof infants can recognize a lullaby heard in the womb for several months after birth. Not only does this suggest babies can remember things they hear and experience prior to birth, the study’s authors say it may be an important component of speech development for infants as they grow into children.
The University of Helsinki’s Cognitive Brain Research Unit studied 24 women during the third trimester of their pregnancies. Half of the women played “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” for their babies five days a week throughout the final weeks of pregnancy; the other half did not.
Researchers found that after the babies were born, the ones who had listened to the song while still in their mothers’ wombs reacted much more strongly than the others to the sound of melody when it was played, even up to four months later.
Previously, the team had studied the effects of speech on preborn babies, and found that as newborns, they showed a clear response to words they had heard repeatedly in the third trimester of their mothers’ pregnancies. But that study did not follow up to see if the babies remembered the words later on.
“This is the first study to track how long fetal memories remain in the brain,” said Dr. Minna Huotilainen, the study’s lead author. “The results are significant, as studying the responses in the brain let us focus on the foundations of fetal memory. The early mechanisms of memory are currently unknown.”
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Scientist Eino Patanen added, “Even though our earlier research indicated that fetuses could learn minor details of speech, we did not know how long they could retain the information. These results show that babies are capable of learning at a very young age, and that the effects of the learning remain apparent in the brain for a long time.”
The study, which was conducted with the help of the Academy of Finland's Finnish Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music, was published Wednesday in the American scientific journal PLoS ONE.
Copyright © 2012 LifeSiteNews.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
I believe this is true. This sounds silly, but my wife could not have children so when her friends were pregnant, she would talk to the child in the womb and after it was born, it would turn in her direction when she talked.
How could a clump of cells remember music?
Exactly. Science is slowly catching up to scripture.
Luk 1:41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:"
So Finland is just catching up? This was known back in the ‘80’s when I was having my first few, and we were playing music to babies in the NICU.
Impossible. Everyone knows that babies are never in the womb. The womb just holds a mass of cells until a baby magically pops out.
You weren’t even born of your wife, yet I bet you turn in her direction when she talks too, eh?
You bet! If I don’t I get whacked by her cane. lol
Zell Miller pushed this in GA almost 20 years ago.
LOL!!
I read to my babies while they were floating around in mom. Can’t do any harm, course you have to wait till they grow ears.
No it only encourages her to keep talking. /s
Why, I remember the Charleston being played! /S
She passed her ham radio exam at age 8, back when they still required code.
I have no idea if there's a connection (he also promised her her own kitten if she passed. Strong incentive. She got the cat. We still have the cat, who is now elderly but feisty.)
Wonder if this mother sang to her baby in womb?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nIsCs9_-LP8#t=93
Amazing reaction
Great!
Indeed. Who knew a parasite could do something like that?
Why in utero education isn’t made into a national policy is beyond me. Given the state of the world, it is OBVIOUS that, as a species, we don’t have the brains to handle the complexities of the modern era. ANY method or program designed to increase human intelligence should be pursued at a gallop so that we can generate solid data on the matter. Human genius is precious beyond belief. Every effort should be made to increase its quantity on the planet.
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