Prenatal experience with language shapes the brain.

Mariani, Benedetta; Nicoletti, Giorgio; Barzon, Giacomo; Ortiz Barajas, Maria Clemencia; Shukla, Mohinish; Guevara, Ramón; Suweis, Samir Simon; Gervain, Judit · Sci Adv · 2023

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Human infants acquire language with notable ease compared to adults, but the neural basis of their remarkable brain plasticity for language remains little understood. Applying a scaling analysis of neural oscillations to address this question, we show that newborns' electrophysiological activity exhibits increased long-range temporal correlations after stimulation with speech, particularly in the prenatally heard language, indicating the early emergence of brain specialization for the native language.

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