Title: "Early exposure to mother's voice: the primer for hearing, language, and brain development"
Speaker: Amir Lahav, Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health
Date: Thursday, October 2, 10:30-11:30 AM
Room: LeFrak Hall Room 0135
Abstract:
Auditory development is largely shaped by early sensory experience. However, it is currently unknown whether, how early, and to what extent the newborn’s brain is shaped by exposure to mother’s voice when the brain is most sensitive to early life programming. In this talk, we will review studies examining the physiological, behavioral, and neurological response of preterm infants to audio recordings of their mother’s voice. We theorize that exposing preterm newborns to mother’s voice before full gestation provides them with a biologically-familiar sensory experience that may play an important role in negating the adverse effects of the noxious hospital environment on future hearing and language development.
