Infants Identify Lullaby Played to Them While in Womb

All infants like lullabies as the soothing melody calms them and provides a good sleep. But, little did we know that the melody played to the growing fetus is easily recognized by the infant.  According to a latest finding, an infant can recognize a lullaby heard in the womb for several months after birth.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Helsinki, observed 24 women who were in their final trimester of their pregnancies. The participants were divided in to two groups where one group was made to listen to the melody 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'. They played the melody for five days a week. At the end, the researchers noticed that the brain of the babies who heard the melody in-utero reacted to the familiar melody immediately. The same reaction was noticed four months after birth. Babies in the control group didn't display the same kind of reaction. The researchers, through this finding, claim that identifying sounds helps the infant in speech development.

The study shows that the fetuses can recognize and remember sounds produced in the outside world. This recognition is important for the early rehabilitation, which aims at long term alterations in the brain.

"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," Eino Partanen, who is currently finishing his dissertation at the Cognitive Brain Research Unit, said in a statement.

This is the first study that measures the duration of fetal memories in the brain.  The researchers state that song and speech are very important for the fetus especially in speech development. Currently, the early mechanism for memory is unknown.

The researchers could identify the difference between the two groups only when they played the original music and not the revised version or even with the notes altered.

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.