Prenatal experience with low-frequency maternal-voice sounds influence neonatal perception of maternal voice samples

doi:10.1016/0163-6383(87)90028-2

Infant Behavior and Development

Volume 10, Issue 2, April–June 1987, Pages 133-142

https://doi.org/10.1016/0163-6383(87)90028-2 Get rights and content

Abstract

By sucking on a nonnutritive nipple in the presence of one discriminative stimulus, newborns were reinforced with a low-pass filtered tape recording of their mothers' voices. Sucking in the presence of a different discriminative stimulus was reinforced with unfiltered maternal-voice recordings. Filtered versions simulated maternal-voice sounds that were available before birth and unfiltered versions simulated maternal-voice sounds available after birth. Newborns in the control group could be reinforced with the same stimuli in the same way, but the voices were unfamiliar to them. Infants hearing their mothers' voices had no preference for either version, but infants hearing the unfamiliar voices preferred the unfiltered version. The difference in the between-groups responsiveness to the low-pass voice samples is consistent with the hypothesis that prenatal experience with low-frequency characteristics of maternal voices influences early postnatal perception of maternal voices.

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This proposed linguistic hierarchy is reflected acoustically in the amplitude modulation (AM) structure of the speech envelope, in which the slowest modulations provide a nested structure for faster ones (Leong and Goswami, 2015). For young infants who cannot yet comprehend speech but nonetheless preferentially attend to it (Vouloumanos and Werker, 2004; Spence and DeCasper, 1987), speech rhythm may provide a predictive temporal framework upon which to build their language acquisition. Rise time is a key acoustic component of perceived rhythm (Greenberg, 2006), and rhythm has long been recognised as a precursor of language acquisition (Mehler et al., 1988; Nazzi et al., 1998).
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In addition to the ability of processing perceptual speech features, newborn babies display early learning abilities likely driven by prenatal exposure to linguistic stimuli. They show preference for hearing their mother’s voice versus a female stranger’s voice (DeCasper and Fifer, 1980; DeCasper and Spence, 1986; Spence and DeCasper, 1987; Fifer and Moon, 1989; Moon and Fifer, 2000), and for the mother’s native versus a non-native language (Moon et al., 1993). If their mother is bilingual, newborns show an equal preference for both languages and are able to discriminate between them (Byers-Heinlein et al., 2010).
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During infancy, natural and frequent interactions with caregivers provide young humans with opportunities to discover aspects of their worlds, including (but not limited to) information about themselves, about others, about objects, and about relations between infants, others, and/or objects. Much of this discovery happens in the context of communication - learning a language system within which this information emerges. This article focuses on general characteristics of linguistic awareness, before infants become fully productive users of language. Culling research from behavioral and neurophysiological studies, we discuss prenatal exposure to maternal sounds, early biases toward faces and voices, emerging awareness of native language structure, and the integration of language into co-occurring systems (e.g., emotion expression and regulation) during this exciting period of development.
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Early emerging biases for conspecific vocalizations are a hallmark of early development. Typically developing neonates listen to speech more than many other sounds, including non-biological non-speech sounds, but listen equally to speech and monkey calls. By 3 months of age, however, infants prefer speech over both non-biological non-speech sounds and monkey calls. We examined whether different listening preferences continue to develop along different developmental trajectories and whether listening preferences are related to developmental outcomes. Given the static preference for speech over non-biological non-speech sounds and the dynamic preference for speech over monkey calls between birth and 3 months, we examined whether 9-month-olds prefer speech over non-biological non-speech sounds (Experiment 1) and prefer speech over monkey calls (Experiment 2). We compared preferences for sounds in infants at low risk (SIBS-TD) and infants at high risk (SIBS-A) of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a heterogeneous population who differ from typically developing infants in their preferences for speech, and examined whether listening preferences predict vocabulary and autism-like behaviors at 12 months for both groups. At 9 months, SIBS-TD listened longer to speech than to non-speech sounds and listened longer to monkey calls than to speech, whereas SIBS-A listened longer to speech than to non-speech sounds but listened equally to speech and monkey calls. SIBS-TD’s preferences did not predict immediate developmental outcomes. In contrast, SIBS-A who preferred speech over non-speech or monkey calls had larger vocabularies and fewer markers of autism-like behaviors at 12 months, which could have positive developmental implications.
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^☆: This search is part of a dissertation submitted to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro by Melanie J. Spence and was presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Los Angeles, CA, April 1986. The project was supported by a Research Council Grant from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a generous equipment loan by Professor Michael D. Zeiler.

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Prenatal experience with low-frequency maternal-voice sounds influence neonatal perception of maternal voice samples☆

Abstract

Infant Behavior and Development

American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Auditory development and speech perception in infancy

Psychophysiological development in infancy: State, sensory function, and attention

Speaker recognition

Assessing infants' auditory functioning

Of human bonding: Newborns prefer their mothers' voices

Science

Human newborns' perception of male voices: Preference, discrimination and reinforcing value

Developmental Psychobiology

Calibrated pure tone audiograms in normal neonates based on evoked electroencephalographic responses

Neuropaediatrie

Early attachment: Maternal-voice preference in one- and three-day old infants