|
|
Do Babies Remember Music Heard In Womb? Babies remember
sounds heard in womb more than a year after birth, study found
|
An unborn girl is played music in the womb....
|
The results of the study by Leicester University are being shown on the BBC's Child Of Our Time program on Wednesday.
The Child Of Our Time study involved a small group of mothers playing a single piece of music to their babies for the last three months before birth.
The music was chosen by the mother and included classical, pop and reggae.
More than a year later, 11 of the babies were tested and showed a preference for these pieces of music compared with very similar pieces of music they had not heard before.
Nurture
Dr Alexandra Lamont, from the university's music research group, said this provides new evidence about the influence of nurture in early child development.
...and responds to it after birth
|
"We know the fetus in the womb is able to hear fully only 20 weeks after conception.
"Now we have discovered that babies can remember and prefer music that they heard before they were born over 12 months later."
The baby's preference was shown by the amount of time spent looking towards the source of the music.
Their attention was attracted by flashing lights before the music was played out of a speaker next to the light.
A control group of children tested with the same pieces of music showed no preference for a particular piece.
Pace not style
Dr Lamont said the pace of the music was more important than the style.
"The babies recognize UB40 just as much as they do Mozart but the pace of the music seems to be influential.
"The babies with faster music like Five's If Ya Gettin' Down or the start of Vivaldi's Four Seasons show stronger preferences than the babies with slower music like Mozart's Adagio for Wind."
But Dr Lamont emphasised that there was no evidence that playing classical music to babies helps to make their brains develop.
Ella
One woman told the BBC how her daughter had developed a taste for jazz.
"I used to have a daily bath and listen to Ella Fitzgerald at 6pm. It was my peace time.
"When she was born she was very fractious with colic. We used to play Ella Fitzgerald at 3am to try to settle her, and it really worked."
The findings will be explored on BBC1 on Wednesday by Professor Robert Winston in the third episode of Child Of Our Time.
The series is an experiment to find out what makes us who we are.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1432000/1432495.stm
Thursday July 12, 2001 1:20 PM ET
By John Griffiths
LONDON (Reuter Health) - Children recognize and prefer music they were exposed to in the womb for at least a year after they are born, according to the results of a small UK study.
Dr. Alexandra Lamont of the University of Leicester studied 14 mothers who played a particular piece of music--ranging from classical to reggae and pop--to their babies during the last 3 months of pregnancy.
At the age of 1 year, 11 of the babies were tested for their ability to recognize the music. ``All babies showed a significant preference for the pieces of music they were exposed to in the womb over very similar tunes they had not heard previously,'' Lamont said in an interview with Reuter Health.
According to Lamont, a fetus can fully hear sounds outside the womb beginning at about 20 weeks after conception. This study, she notes, demonstrates that babies can remember--and prefer--music they heard before they were born.
None of the babies were exposed to the prenatal tunes between birth and their first birthday. This, according to Lamont, means that preferences found in this study were based on long-term memory.
``This is the first time that memory in babies has been shown to last more than 1 or 2 months,'' she said.
A separate group of 11 babies who had not been played the music in the womb were tested with the same pieces of music and showed no particular preferences.
``Early shared experiences are a crucial part of childhood development,'' Lamont said. ``When they recognized the music, some babies also turned around to their mothers, indicating that the music played some sort of role in developing an emotional bond.''
According to Lamont, babies did not show a preference for a particular musical style--recognizing reggae as often as they did Mozart.
Lamont plans to study how long a baby's memory of a piece of music lasts. She will also look at how musical taste develops and how it fits with family preferences and prenatal exposure.
``All babies like fast, exciting music at the age of 12 months, but we may find that preferences for music they were played in the womb may return later in life,'' she added.
Lamont emphasized that she found no evidence that playing music to babies, whether classical or pop, improved their intelligence.
According to Professor Peter Hepper, an expert on prenatal development at Queens University in Belfast, ``These results are exciting as they suggest that the developing brain is capable of storing and recovering memories over a long period of time.''
In an interview with Reuter Health, Hepper said, ``Obviously, there must be underlying changes in the brain to enable this recognition, but whether such early exposure leads to preferences for certain types of music in later life in presently unknown. Whether these babies will be more musical, given their early education is also unknown.''
He added, ``At a more general level, the results indicate that environmental factors experienced by the fetus may have a long-term influence on its development. And they support the growing realisation that the prenatal period is more important than previously thought.''
Source: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010712/hl/womb.html
Thursday July 12 10:00 PM EDT
By Maggie Owens ABCNEWS.com
In the womb, they got dosed with everything from UB40 to Mozart and Vivaldi. Suprisingly, the infants remembered the tunes for a long time after birth.
Babies remember tunes they were played in the womb for as much as a year after birth, says a new study.
"All previous research showed that they could remember things for up to a month but there was no evidence to suggest that they would remember for up to a year," said Alexandra Lamont, a lecturer at Britain's University of Leicester psychology department who conducted the study.
"I really wasn't expecting this."
Facing the Music
For the study, "How Music Heard in the Womb is Remembered by the Child," 12 expectant mothers were asked to choose a piece of music that they enjoyed and to play it to their babies for the three months before the birth.
When 11 of the children were one year old they were tested for recognition of the music by being placed in a room with two speakers. The study does not say why one baby was not tested.
New Ultrasound Gives Womb With a View
Each speaker played a piece of music: One was the prenatal music and the other was a piece of music chosen for its similarity in key, pace, and loudness. Atop each speaker was a ball with colored lights.
Researchers recorded the length of time the babies spent looking at each ball — implying they were listening to each piece of music.
Each baby, none of whom could speak, showed a clear preference for the music they had been exposed to while in the womb. A control group of children showed no preference for either piece of music.
Classical and Rock
The parents represented a wide spectrum and were from a variety of economic backgrounds. They have varying home situations with moms working, moms and dads working, nannies, and more.
As a result of their varying backgrounds the babies were exposed to many different types of music during their first year, including the pop group UB40, classical music by Vivaldi and Mozart, Jamaican-born reggae artist Ken Boothe, and British "boy band" Five.
Lamont said she initially allowed the babies a choice between the prenatal music and something completely different.
For instance, if the prenatal music was classical, the other option would be rock music.
She suspected that if the babies were able to pick out their own piece of music, then it would be much more likely that they would remember it in this circumstance.
When she discovered that after a year they could recognize their prenatal music even when offered a very similar choice, she was amazed.
Musical Marking
Lamont plans to continue her research with music and these same babies looking at whether the memories will persist in the years to come and how this memory may effect their musical preferences and abilities.
Lamont's research was broadcast this week in the United Kingdom on a British Broadcasting Corporation program called Child of Our Time, which followed several expectant mothers through their pregnancy and the first year of each child's life and looked at the development of cognitive skills, eating habits, and musical abilities, among other things.
Source:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/abc/20010712/hl/babies_music_010711_1.html
|
www.skfriends.com |
|
