A new study conducted by researchers from Stanford University of Medicine in the United States revealed that hearing premature infants’ mothers’ voices contributes to enhancing the development of linguistic pathways in their brains.
The study showed that premature babies in the hospital, who regularly listened to recordings of their mothers, showed more mature development in the main linguistic pathway of the brain, compared to those who were not exposed to these sounds.
Catherine Travis, lead author of the study, stated that the results represent the first causal evidence that verbal experience contributes to brain development at this very early age, noting that these results may change how neonatal care is provided to improve language outcomes in premature infants.
The research team confirmed that the noticeable effect on brain development, despite the short period of the experiment, highlights the importance of exposure to speech in the early stages of life, and shows that what happens inside the hospital may make a big difference in the linguistic development of premature babies.
The study also indicated that audio recordings can complement personal visits, as they allow the infant to hear his parents’ voice and sense their presence, which contributes to enhancing his neurological and linguistic development.
It is noteworthy that premature babies who are born at least three weeks before their due date spend weeks or months in the hospital, which means that they hear their mothers’ speech less than if they continued to grow inside the womb. Therefore, the researchers relied on playing audio recordings to the mothers for two hours and 40 minutes daily over several weeks, which had a positive impact on the growth of white matter in the left arcuate fasciculus (the pathway specialized in language processing).