We knew that babies are capable of differentiating voices and sounds from the womb, and that shortly after birth they can already remember some words. The baby’s ability to learn language is really complex, and the more we discover about it, the more surprising it becomes.
Now, a recent study published in Nature Human Behavior has revealed an amazing detail: babies begin to learn the sounds of language within hours of birth .
The newborn only needs a few hours to begin to differentiate the natural sounds of speech
The study was conducted in China by a neonatal research team. 75 healthy and full-term newborns participated in it, who were placed on their heads with little caps with devices designed to measure changes in the oxygen levels of the brain and thus detect the active areas at each moment.
This procedure (safe and painless for the baby) was performed within three hours of birth and aimed to identify how babies process language .
The newborns were exposed to pairs of sounds that included natural vowel strings played in their native language (Mandarin Chinese) – also common to most human languages – and to the same sequences but inverted, that is, played backwards.
Although in the first three hours the babies did not differentiate the subtle difference between the vowels played forwards and backwards, after listening to these sounds for five hours their brains began to show a response .
This response was faster and stronger when the vowels were played forward, suggesting that within hours of birth, the baby’s brain is already capable of differentiating between natural and unnatural speech sounds .
In addition, the scientists were able to verify that the brain regions of the superior temporal lobe (a part of the brain associated with auditory processing) and the frontal cortex (involved in planning complex movements) were involved in the processing of vowel sounds. . These areas are also activated in adults for language processing and production .
The benefits of talking to the newborn
These findings further reinforce the recommendations to speak to the baby as soon as it is born , since doing so has important benefits for its neuronal development and language acquisition.
These benefits are especially observed in the case of premature babies , since talking to them not only helps them in the acquisition of their motor skills and in their mental and language development, but also reduces their pain during the performance of some medical test.
