After only 16 weeks of existence, foetuses hear and respond to music as long as it is emitted from their mother’s vagina. Foetuses respond to this stimulus by opening their mouths and pulling their tongues out as far as possible, making vocalisation movements – prior to the acquisition of language.
This is the main conclusion of the study conducted by the team of Institut Marquès, which boasts the collaboration of Alberto Prats, Professor of Anatomy and Human Embryology of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona.
The study, entitled “Foetal facial expression in response to intravaginal music emission”, is published this week in the journal Ultrasound of the British Medical Ultrasound Society (BMUS).
According to Dr. Marisa López-Teijón, the Head of Assisted Reproduction at Institut Marquès and the principal researcher and author of the clinical study: “We have discovered that the formula for foetuses to hear like us is to emit music from the mother’s vagina. They barely hear the sound that reaches them through their mother’s abdomen: the soft tissues of the abdomen and the inside of the mother’s body absorb the soundwaves”.
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7647351-how-foetuses-hear-musical-stimuli/
