Elsevier

Infant Behavior and Development

Volume 17, Issue 2, April–June 1994, Pages 159-164
Infant Behavior and Development

Fetal reactions to recurrent maternal speech

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Abstract

Pregnant women recited a short child's rhyme, “the target”, aloud each day between the thirty third and thirty seventh weeks of their fetuses' gestation. Then their fetuses were stimulated with tape recordings of the target and a control rhyme. The target elicited a decrease in fetal heartrate whereas the control did not. Thus, fetuses' exposure to specific speech sounds can affect their subsequent reactions to those sounds. More generally, the result suggests that third trimester fetuses become familiar with recurrent, maternal speech sounds.

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    This work was supported by grant CIES 34410.360.80604 from the French Ministry of Exterior Relations to A.J.D., who was sponsored by P. Roubertoux, Universite Paris V, URA 1294 CNRS, Genetique, Neurogenetique et Comportement. There was also support from the Fulbright Program and the Research Council of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to AJD and from grant 30061, 13005 INSERM and 638 CNAMTS to M.-C.B. and C. Sureau. The authors wish to thank C. Sureau (Baudelocque Maternity CHU Cochin, Paris, France) and his staff for their valuable help. We are especially grateful to the mothers and their infants for making this research possible.

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