a melodic contour repeatedly experienced by human near-term fetuses elicits a profound cardiac reaction one month after birth近期的旋律轮廓反复经历了人类胎儿抒发深厚的心脏反应在出生后一个月.pdfVIP

A Melodic Contour Repeatedly Experienced by Human Near-Term Fetuses Elicits a Profound Cardiac Reaction One Month after Birth 1 1 ´ 1 2 Carolyn Granier-Deferre *, Sophie Bassereau , Aurelie Ribeiro , Anne-Yvonne Jacquet , Anthony J. DeCasper3 ´ 1 Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neuropsychologie Cognitives, CNRS-FRE 3292, Universite Paris Descartes, Paris, France, 2 Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, CNRS- ´ UMR 8158, Universite Paris Descartes, Paris, France, 3 Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, United States of America Abstract Background: Human hearing develops progressively during the last trimester of gestation. Near-term fetuses can discriminate acoustic features, such as frequencies and spectra, and process complex auditory streams. Fetal and neonatal studies show that they can remember frequently recurring sounds. However, existing data can only show retention intervals up to several days after birth. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we show that auditory memories can last at least six weeks. Experimental fetuses were given precisely controlled exposure to a descending piano melody twice daily during the 35th, 36th, and 37th weeks of gestation. Six weeks later we assessed the cardiac responses of 25 exposed infants and 25 naive control infants, while in quiet sleep, to the descending melody and to an ascending control piano melody. The melodies had precisely inverse contours, but similar spectra, identical duration, tempo and rhythm, thus, almost identical amplitude envelopes. All infants displayed a significant he