Mothers’ Sounds Are Building Block for Babies’ Brains

By Douglas Quenqua

The sound of a mother’s voice plays a critical role in a baby’s early development, multiple studies have shown. Now, researchers have demonstrated that the brain itself may rely on a mother’s voice and heartbeat to grow.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston studied 40 babies born eight to 15 weeks prematurely. Like most severely premature babies, the infants were confined to incubators and spent limited time with their mothers.

“Preemies born this early are basically fetuses that happen to be out there by accident,” said Amir Lahav, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and senior author of the study.

Using tiny speakers placed inside the incubators, half the babies were exposed to the sounds of their mothers’ voices and heartbeats for three extra hours every day. The other half received no additional exposure to such sounds.

After 30 days, babies in the first group had developed a significantly larger auditory cortex — the hearing center of the brain — than those in the second group. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help guide doctors and parents caring for premature babies, who often suffer from developmental and cognitive disabilities.

“This is part of the biological recipe for how you cook a baby,” Dr. Lahav said. “Any deviation from original recipe” could result in developmental problems, he added.

教養拼圖 嬰兒大腦發育 靠母親聲音啟動

根據紐約時報的報導，先前即有多項研究顯示，母親的嗓音對於嬰兒的早期發育會發揮重要影響。

現在，最新發表的研究發現，大腦的發育的確可能要依靠母親的嗓音和心跳聲「啟動」。

這項研究是美國哈佛大學醫學院主導，他們和波士頓一所婦科醫院的研究人員以40名早產8至15周的嬰兒為分析對象。這些小朋友和大多數嚴重早產的嬰兒一樣，一出生就被放在保溫箱裡，和媽媽在一起的時間很有限。

「這麼早出生的早產兒基本上還是胎兒，他們只是意外出生，」這項研究的高級作者、哈佛大學醫學院兒科學助理教授阿米爾拉哈夫說。

研究者在其中一半嬰兒(實驗組)的保溫箱內放入小揚聲器，播放母親的講話聲音和心跳聲，每天播放三個小時。另一半嬰兒（對照組)則只是靜靜的躺在保溫箱內。30天後，實驗組嬰兒的聽覺皮層（大腦的聽覺中心）明顯比對照組嬰兒的大。

這項研究報告發表在美國《國家科學院學報》上，結論認為，這項發現可以幫助指導醫生和父母照顧早產兒。因為早產兒最常出現的問題，就是發育和認知障礙。

拉哈夫表示，大腦的發育尚有很多未知的領域，從研究發現母親的細語和心跳聲「是孕育嬰兒生物配方的一部分」。他補充說，「對原始配方的任何偏離」都可能導致發育問題。

原文參照：
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/mothers-sounds-are-building-block-for-babies-brains/

2015-09-06．聯合報．D2．教養．本報訊