Emergence and retention of learning in early fetal development |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Human Development and Family Science, North Dakota State University, USA;2. Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, USA;1. Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD;2. Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China;3. Department of Child Health Care, Children''s Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China;4. Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN;5. Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI;6. Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI;1. The Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities, Rutgers – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, United States;2. Department of Psychology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, United States;3. The University of Montana, Missoula, MT, United States;1. 0-3 Centre for the Study of Social Emotional Development of the At-Risk Infant, Scientific Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Italy;2. Department of Neonatal Care and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Manzoni Hospital, Lecco, Italy;3. Development Care Study Group, Italian Neonatology Society, Italy;4. Neuropsychiatry and Neurorehabilitation Unit, Scientific Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Italy |
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| Abstract: | Prior research has demonstrated that the late-term fetus is capable of learning and then remembering a passage of speech for several days, but there are no data to describe the earliest emergence of learning a passage of speech, and thus, how long that learning could be remembered before birth. This study investigated these questions. Pregnant women began reciting or speaking a passage out loud (either Rhyme A or Rhyme B) when their fetuses were 28 weeks gestational age (GA) and continued to do so until their fetuses reached 34 weeks of age, at which time the recitations stopped. Fetuses’ learning and memory of their rhyme were assessed at 28, 32, 33, 34, 36 and 38 weeks. The criterion for learning and memory was the occurrence of a stimulus-elicited heart rate deceleration following onset of a recording of the passage spoken by a female stranger. Detection of a sustained heart rate deceleration began to emerge by 34 weeks GA and was statistically evident at 38 weeks GA. Thus, fetuses begin to show evidence of learning by 34 weeks GA and, without any further exposure to it, are capable of remembering until just prior to birth. Further study using dose–response curves is needed in order to more fully understand how ongoing experience, in the context of ongoing development in the last trimester of pregnancy, affects learning and memory. |
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| Keywords: | Fetus Learning Memory Attention Development Speech |
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