A fetus can become familiar with a foreign language in its mother’s womb

Neuropsychology researchers at the University of Montreal have made a fascinating discovery. They found that it is possible to become familiar with a foreign language even before birth.

After repeatedly playing another language to fetuses in the wombs of women from completely French-speaking backgrounds, they demonstrated that their brains reacted in the same way after birth as when hearing their mother tongue.

To reach this conclusion, they played audiobooks in Hebrew or German to the fetuses for five weeks. These languages were chosen because they are “phonologically and acoustically different from French,” according to Anne Gallagher, the professor of pediatric neuropsychology who led the study.

Starting at 35 weeks of pregnancy, the 60 women recruited played children’s stories to their unborn babies twice a day for about 20 minutes in a calm and quiet environment, using headphones placed on their bellies.

Once born, they were monitored at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center. The researchers used functional near-infrared spectroscopy, an optical imaging technique that measures brain activity by detecting changes in the concentration of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood in the cerebral cortex. The results were striking.

“We looked at their brains’ reaction to each language. What we saw was that French was processed by the areas of the brain associated with language, which is a normal reaction to a language you know. Babies who listened to a language they had been exposed to during pregnancy showed brain activity similar to that seen with French. There were some differences, but it recruited areas associated with language processing, whereas the unfamiliar language was processed more like auditory stimuli, so not areas that are characterized for processing language or performing language processes,” explains Gallagher.

However, this does not mean that they learned a new language in utero. “I wouldn’t say that they are learning a language, but that they are able to become familiar with a language, recognize that it is a language, and process it with language-related areas of their brain,” explains the neuropsychologist.

In total, her team saw these babies seven times: at birth, at four months, eight months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, and 36 months. At each of their visits to the lab, their brain activity was recorded at rest and then while they listened to the same stories narrated in different languages.

“We conducted a developmental assessment to see how they are developing cognitively, linguistically, and motorically. At age three, we can go further in the assessment. We can test, for example, intellectual abilities. With all this data, we are looking longitudinally at how the networks are developing. There aren’t many longitudinal studies because they are expensive and time-consuming.”

Long-term effects unlikely

However, Gallagher doubts that the effects will last.

“If they are not in an environment where there is a lot of Hebrew, for example, I don’t think they will keep those networks because they are of no use to them. I would be very surprised if we saw anything else. The brain is so plastic, it will have been exposed to many things. In my opinion, we won’t see any more effects, and that would be normal because of the brain’s tremendous plasticity at that age.”

Even if these children were exposed to German or Hebrew before birth, that doesn’t mean they will learn those languages more easily later in life, she points out.

“We have to be careful, we don’t know. But it does mean that we can really influence the development of the brain’s language networks during the prenatal period.”

In fact, the older we get, the harder it is to acquire new knowledge. This is again due to the brain’s plasticity.

“Our brains are still plastic, as has now been demonstrated, but less so than those of children, which will change or adapt to their environment much more than those of adults. That’s why certain types of learning are more difficult in adulthood,” says Gallagher.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews