2003/05/01 by Barbara S. Kisilevsky, Sylvia M. J. Hains, Kang Lee +5 · 2 citations
Psychology · Health Professions · #Language Development and Disorders #Infant Health and Development #Phonetics and Phonology Research
paper · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.02435
openalex publication_date 2003/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
The ability of human fetuses to recognize their own mother's voice was examined. Sixty term fetuses were assigned to one of two conditions during which they were exposed to a tape recording of their mother or a female stranger reading a passage. Voice stimuli were delivered through a loudspeaker held approximately 10 cm above the maternal abdomen and played at an average of 95 dB SPL. Each condition consisted of three 2-min periods: no stimulus, voice (mother or stranger), and no stimulus. Fetal heart rate increased in response to the mother's voice and decreased in response to the stranger's; both responses were sustained for 4 min. The finding of differential behavior in response to a familiar versus a novel voice provides evidence that experience influences fetal voice processing. It supports an epigenetic model of speech perception, presuming an interaction between genetic expression of neural development and species-specific experience.