Babies’ brains recognize foreign languages they heard before birth

A recent study suggests that babies start processing language before they are born. A research team in Montreal has found that newborns who had heard short stories in foreign languages while in the womb process those languages similarly to their native tongue.

Previous research had shown that fetuses and newborns can recognize familiar voices and rhythms and even that they prefer their native language soon after birth. But these findings come mostly from behavioral cues—sucking patterns, head turns or heart rate changes—rather than direct evidence from the brain. This is the first study to use brain imaging to show what neuroscientists and psychologists had long suspected.

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