Barcelona (EFE)
This has been concluded by a study led by Professor Carlos Escera, head of the Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group (Brainlab) of the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Barcelona (UB), in which the Institute of Neurosciences of the University of Barcelona has also participated. UB (UBNeuro) and the Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute (IRSJD).
The study, published in the journal ‘Developmental Science’, provides new perspectives on the effects of prenatal exposure to music on speech stimuli, based on a specific brain response: the neonatal frequency tracking response (RSF or FFR). for the English frequency-following response), a neurophonic auditory evoked potential that reports the proper neural encoding of speech sounds.
According to the study, daily music exposure during the last weeks of pregnancy is associated with better encoding of low-frequency sound components, which could improve the newborn’s perception of pitch.
Researchers have explained that the tracking frequency response (RSF) is conditioned by various speech and language impairments, and has been shown to be affected by the fetal environment and prenatal acoustic environment as well.
For this reason, according to the researchers, this measurement can be used as a biomarker to detect the risk of language disorders and establish preventive measures in the early stages of life.
The study has been based on comparing the RSF records of 60 healthy newborns (between 12 and 72 hours).
Twenty-nine of the babies were exposed to music daily during the prenatal period, and 31 had no music exposure.
The researchers analyzed the encephalogram recording of the babies to two different speech stimuli that allow analyzing the encoding of frequencies to which the newborn has been exposed in the womb.
Daily exposure helps in encoding speech
Thus they saw that daily exposure to music in the last trimester of pregnancy is related to a more robust encoding of speech stimuli.
Prenatal exposure to music is associated with fine-tuned encoding of the fundamental frequency of human speech, which may facilitate early language acquisition and processing.
“Musical stimulation reaches the auditory system with low-frequency rhythmic components that train it to organize neural plasticity”, explained Brainlab researcher Sonia Arenillas.
The work also finds that exposure to music during pregnancy has no effect on neural transmission speed, in contrast to the faster processing speed of auditory and speech stimuli identified in musically trained adults, which is the result of myelination of underlying neuronal structures.
“This is only the first step towards a specific clinical application after the necessary follow-up studies”, assured Carles Escera, who pointed out that “those children who present an attenuated brain response, such as babies born with a low normative weight, could benefit from a music intervention program.”
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