ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2015
Mother's voice and heartbeat sounds elicit auditory plasticity in the human brain before full gestation.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 86 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
86 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 262 citations in OpenAlex.
- Examining Behavioral Interventions for Infancy and Early Toddlerhood: A Systematic Review of Intervention Effects, Parameters, and Participants.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Pooled it
- Effect of tactile and/or kinesthetic stimulation therapy of preterm infants on their parents' anxiety and depressive symptoms: A systematic review.BMC psychology · 2024Pooled it
- The impact of sound stimulations during pregnancy on fetal learning: a systematic review.BMC pediatrics · 2023Pooled it
- Effect of Musical Stimulation on Placental Programming and Neurodevelopment Outcome of Preterm Infants: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- Sensory-based interventions in the NICU: systematic review of effects on preterm brain development.Pediatric research · 2022Pooled it
- A prospective randomized crossover trial studying the effects of maternal heartbeat and voice sounds on resting energy expenditure in preterm infants.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2026Trial
- Trial
- A pilot study to assess the safety, efficacy and ease of use of a novel hearing protection device for hospitalized neonates.Early human development · 2021Trial
- Changes in autonomic regulation due to Kangaroo care remain unaffected by using a swaddling device.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2019Trial
- The calming effect of a new wearable device during the anticipation of public speech.Scientific reports · 2017Trial
- Fathers, not mothers: the male singing voice and the preterm brain's response to song in the NICU.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Critical Review on the Development and Evolution of Beat Perception.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Review
- Recorded music exposure and brain growth in preterm infants: a randomized controlled trial.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- The Forgotten Collateral Damage of Maternal Deaths.Maternal-fetal medicine (Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.) · 2026Article
- Prenatal and early postnatal periods differentially shape the maturation of human cortical microstructure and myelin.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Human newborns form musical predictions based on rhythmic but not melodic structure.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Rhythm Processing Across Development: Origins, Links to Language Processing, and Perspectives for Intervention.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Review
- Reward-related language processing of maternal speech in infants at different likelihood of ASD.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Article
- Role of maternal sound stimulation in the NICU: improving outcomes for newborns and their families.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Review
- Investigating Generalizability of Top-Down Neural Representation of Meter in Infancy.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2025Article
26 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Brain 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 maternal sounds when the brain is most sensitive to early life programming. The present study examined this question in 40 infants born extremely prematurely (between 25- and 32-wk gestation) in the first month of life. Newborns were randomized to receive auditory enrichment in the form of audio recordings of maternal sounds (including their mother's voice and heartbeat) or routine exposure to hospital environmental noise. The groups were otherwise medically and demographically comparable. Cranial ultrasonography measurements were obtained at 30 ± 3 d of life. Results show that newborns exposed to maternal sounds had a significantly larger auditory cortex (AC) bilaterally compared with control newborns receiving standard care. The magnitude of the right and left AC thickness was significantly correlated with gestational age but not with the duration of sound exposure. Measurements of head circumference and the widths of the frontal horn (FH) and the corpus callosum (CC) were not significantly different between the two groups. This study provides evidence for experience-dependent plasticity in the primary AC before the brain has reached full-term maturation. Our results demonstrate that despite the immaturity of the auditory pathways, the AC is more adaptive to maternal sounds than environmental noise. Further studies are needed to better understand the neural processes underlying this early brain plasticity and its functional implications for future hearing and language development.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.