Babies Remember Music Heard In The Womb
By John Griffiths
7-12-1
LONDON (Reuters Health) - Children recognise 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 Reuters Health.
According to Lamont, a foetus 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 Reuters 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 foetus 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.'' |
