Unborn Babies Can Decipher Speeches-- New Study

Scietists say babies can decipherr speeches as early as three months before birth. The evidence came from brain scan of twelve babies born prematurely. At just 20 week's gestation, the babies appeared to dicriminate between different syllables like 'ga' and 'ba' as well as male and female voices. Writing in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the French team said it was unlikely the babies' experience outside the womb would have affected their findings. The research lends suppoprt to the idea that babies develop language skills while still in the womb in response to their parents' voices. Experts already know that babies are able to hear noises in the womb-the ear and auditory part of the body that allow this are formed by around 23 weeks' gestation. But it is still debated that human are born with an innate ability tp process speech ot this is something acquired through learning after birth. The authors of the study in PNAS say enviromental factors are undoubtedly important, but based on their findings they believe linguistic process is innate. Dr Fabrice and colleagues say," Our results demonstrate that the human brain, at the very onset of the establishment of a cortical circuit for auditiry perception, already discriminate suble difference in speech syllables." But they add this that," this does not challenge the facts that experience is also crucial for their fine tuning and learning specific properties of native language." Prof Sophie Scott an expert in speech perception says," we know that babies ears can hear their mother's voice in the womb and pick up on the pitch and rhythm. "And they use this informatiom- newborn babies are soothed by their mother's voice from the minute they are born"