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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 8, 2026

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
06:34

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Published on: July 1, 2015

Learning-induced neural plasticity of speech processing before birth.

Eino Partanen1, Teija Kujala, Risto Näätänen

  • 1Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Cognitive Science, Institute of Behavioral Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00014, Helsinki, Finland.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|August 28, 2013
PubMed
Summary

Newborns demonstrate prenatal learning of speech sounds. Fetuses exposed to specific speech variants showed enhanced brain activity after birth, indicating early auditory memory formation.

Keywords:
event-related potentialsmismatch negativity

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Auditory Neuroscience

Background:

  • Learning is fundamental to adaptive behavior, driven by neural plasticity and modulated brain responses.
  • Infant auditory learning involves forming memory traces that enhance sound discrimination, crucial for speech perception.
  • While newborns show behavioral differences to familiar vs. unfamiliar sounds, the neural basis of fetal auditory learning remains unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural underpinnings of human fetal learning of speech-like auditory stimuli.
  • To identify direct neural correlates of prenatal auditory memory formation.

Main Methods:

  • Presentation of speech-like auditory stimuli variants to fetuses.
  • Measurement of brain activity (mismatch responses) in newborns after birth.
  • Correlation analysis between prenatal exposure duration and neural responses.

Main Results:

  • Newborns exposed prenatally exhibited enhanced brain activity (mismatch responses) to trained speech variants compared to controls.
  • A positive correlation was observed between the amount of prenatal exposure and the magnitude of brain activity.
  • The learning effect generalized to similar, untrained speech sounds, indicating robust memory representation.

Conclusions:

  • Direct neural evidence confirms human fetal learning of speech features.
  • Prenatal auditory experiences establish specific neural memory representations for speech sounds.
  • This study highlights the brain's capacity for sophisticated auditory learning in utero.