It's often said learning has no age. A recent study reveals that babies in the womb can learn lullabies and recollect them after months. This can eventually help in the development of better speech mechanism in babies later.
The research was led by a group of scholars from the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research and Cognitive Brain Research Unit at the University Of Helsinki Institute Of Behavioral Sciences. The findings are based on a survey conducted on 24 pregnant who were made to play 'Twinkle Twinkle little star' five days a week in the last three months of their pregnancy.
A group of The infants were made to listen to the same rhyme after four months of their birth and their brain waves were measured. The infants who had heard the melody earlier, reacted more sharply to the music as compared to the rest. It proves that infants can hear in the womb and remember the rhythms for months after they are born.
According to the researchers, this is the first ever study conducted to capture the duration of a memory that a human brain can retain.
The researchers say that music has always been a great guide to speech development. The babies utter the words exactly the way their brain interprets them and conveys to their ears, which means rhythms register better with the on brains and can help babies interpret it in speech patterns.
The study is published on an American scientific journal, Plos One. The study proves that infants start learning sounds even before their birth and their brains preserve them for a longer duration but exact duration still needs to be found out, said Eino Partanen, a researcher, at the Cognitive Brain Research Unit. "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 said Eino Partanen in a statement, reports, Science Daily. "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."
Recent studies have revealed lullabies also help in easing pain in infants. The lullabies act as a source of comfort to them. The melodious tune closer to their heart beat engrosses them, decreasing their level of irritation, according to a recent post in The Telegraph.