Memory Traces Formed in Utero-Newborns' Autonomic and Neuronal Responses to Prenatal Stimuli and the Maternal Voice.

ABSTRACT: In our pilot study, we exposed third-trimester fetuses, from week 34 of gestation onwards, twice daily to a maternal spoken nursery rhyme. Two and five weeks after birth, 34 newborns, who were either familiarized with rhyme stimulation in utero or stimulation naïve, were (re-)exposed to the familiar, as well as to a novel and unfamiliar, rhyme, both spoken with the maternal and an unfamiliar female voice. For the stimulation-naïve group, both rhymes were unfamiliar. During stimulus presentation, heart rate activity and high-density electroencephalography were collected and newborns' responses during familiar and unfamiliar stimulation were analyzed. All newborns demonstrated stronger speech-brain coupling at 1 Hz during the presentation of the maternal voice vs. the unfamiliar female voice

SUBMITTER: Lang A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7697227 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature