New evidence from researchers in Europe points to language learning beginning well before birth. The finding adds to the growing view that the infant brain starts tuning into spoken language while still in the womb, long before first words emerge.
Earlier studies suggested that unborn babies can hear sounds from outside the uterus around the seventh month of pregnancy. They show recognition of the mother’s voice and begin to absorb rhythm and prosody—those musical aspects of speech—before birth.
In the latest work, 33 newborns born to native French-speaking mothers were studied. The infants were exposed to three versions of the tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears in French, English, and Spanish, while researchers tracked brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG).
A key finding was that children who had heard French before birth or shortly afterward displayed longer-term temporal correlations in their brain signals. These long-range temporal correlations are linked to how speech is perceived and processed, suggesting prenatal language exposure can leave a measurable mark on neural function.
The researchers applied a method called detrended fluctuation analysis to quantify the strength of these correlations in the developing brain. The strongest effects appeared in the theta band, a brain rhythm associated with processing syllables and other basic linguistic units, aligning with the idea that the fetal brain is highly attuned to linguistic input received before birth.
When looking at whether the prenatal language environment mattered, the pronounced LRTC increases were evident for babies exposed to French, but not for those listening to Spanish or English. This points to a language-specific influence of prenatal experience on how newborns respond to language at the neural level.
Overall, the work supports the view that children can begin learning and processing language before birth and that the brain may be tuned for rapid language acquisition. This early alignment could contribute to the swift language development often seen during infancy and early childhood.
These results add to a growing body of research on how prenatal experiences shape later speech and language outcomes, highlighting the lasting impact of early auditory exposure on neural pathways. Future research may examine how different languages and rhythmic patterns encountered in the womb influence language development across diverse populations. (Citation: peer-reviewed study)