胎儿懂得学习 胎教意义中大

Did you know,Dohn,that infants prefer their mothers’voices to that of other females? And that they will change their behavior in order to solicit her voice?

知道吗，多恩，相对于其他女性而言，婴儿更喜欢自己妈妈的声音。还有啊，为了能听到妈妈的声音，婴儿的行为会做出改变。

Sounds reasonable to me.

听起来是那么回事。

Ok,but did you know that a fetus can distinguish its mother’s voice from that of other females before it's even born?

嗯，不过你知道吗，出生前的胎儿能够分辨出自己妈妈的声音与其他女性的声音的不同。

I'm not sure I follow that, I mean how could anyone possibly detect that?

我不太清楚，我是指，人们是怎么发现的呢？

By listening to the heart. Fetuses at term were played recordings of their mothers reading a poem, as well as recordings of a female stranger reading the same poem. The fetuses’ hearts accelerated when they heard their own mothers’ voices, but actually decelerated when they heard the voice of the female stranger. The recordings lasted two minutes, but the effects on the fetuses’ hearts went on for several minutes beyond the recordings.

通过监听心脏。给满月的婴儿们播放一段自己妈妈的诗朗诵录音，再播一段其他女性朗诵的。当听到自己妈妈的声音时，胎儿的心跳加速，但是听到陌生女性的声音时，胎儿的心跳速率下降了。录音播放了2分钟，但是胎儿们的心跳受到的影响却持续了几分钟。

That's pretty interesting, but so what?

很有意思，不过那又如何呢？

The what is that the experience in the womb seems to affect newborn preferences and behavior. Not only that, but fetuses’ recognition of their mothers’ voices proves that fetuses are capable of learning. This all leads scientists to believe that the process of learning language may begin before birth. Perhaps that infants are so quick to pick up on language shouldn’t be surprising. They’ve had some experience with language before they were born. In fact, their speedy grasping of language may not be due to some innate ability hardwired into the brain. It may be due instead to the information the fetus began accumulating in-utero.

此次实验的意义就在于，人们发现了似乎胎儿在子宫里的所经历的事情能够影响到他们出生后的喜好和行为。不仅如此，胎儿对自己母亲声音的识别证明他们有学习能力。这一切都让科学家们相信，人学习语言的过程可能在出生前就开始了。也许，婴儿很快就学会了说话也没什么奇怪的。在出生之前，他们就有了语言学习经验。实际上，婴儿能迅速掌握语言可能并不取决于他大脑本身的一些机能，而是取决于他在子宫里时积累了多少信息。

Notes:

fetus:胎儿

womb:子宫

grasp:抓住;领会

innate:与生俱来的

hardwired:硬连线的

accumulate:积累

in-utero:在子宫内