Researchers at the University of Montreal have uncovered an intriguing finding – that exposure to a foreign language before birth may lead to familiarity with it after birth.
The study involved playing audiobooks in Hebrew or German to fetuses in the wombs of French-speaking women for five weeks. The goal was to observe how the babies’ brains responded to these unfamiliar languages. Lead researcher Anne Gallagher, a professor of pediatric neuropsychology, shared that the brain activity of the babies exposed to these languages during pregnancy resembled that of processing French, their native language.
Using advanced technology to monitor brain activity, the team discovered that the familiar language stimulated the areas associated with language processing, while the unfamiliar languages were processed more as auditory stimuli. Gallagher clarified that while the babies weren’t learning a new language in utero, they were becoming familiar with it and engaging language-related brain regions.
The study followed these babies up to age three, evaluating their cognitive, linguistic, and motor development over time. Gallagher acknowledged that the effects of prenatal language exposure might not persist if the children weren’t consistently exposed to those languages post-birth.
While the brain’s plasticity allows for learning at a young age, acquiring new knowledge becomes more challenging in adulthood. Gallagher emphasized the influence of prenatal experiences on the brain’s language networks, highlighting the importance of early developmental stages in shaping cognitive abilities.
