Mother’s Speech Activates Child’s Brain

Did you know that a mother’s speech activates a child’s brain? The areas of the brain that are responsible for emotional and social reactions and facial recognition are then activated. The selectivity of information is also activated when the child hears his or her mother’s speech.

This only happens when the baby recognizes the voice of its own mother, i.e., the voices of others do not elicit a similar reaction. This research result comes from a study conducted at Harvard University, says the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

“Part of the social consciousness of language and emotional processes is embraced through as simple an experience as one’s own mother’s voice,” says lead researcher Daniel Abrams in a statement published by the university and shared by various media sources around the world.

The result of the study surprised the researchers, even though they already knew that the mother’s voice calms the baby. T esearchers did not know that the mother’s voice activates the child’s brain from many of the area as quickly and efficiently.

Abrams explains how many studies have shown that a baby favors his mother’s voice among other people’s voices, but so far no one has been able to specify the reasons for this phenomenon. “Before these areas of the brain that are responsible for the processes mentioned above, it has not been understood to stop to study more closely,” the researcher adds.

The mother’s speech activates the child’s brain

The study consisted of imaging the brains of several children while the child listened to the voices of his mother as well as unknown women. The sample consisted of 24 children aged 7-12 who have lived with their mother all their lives.

In addition, all children had an IQ of at least 80, and no one was diagnosed with developmental or similar disorders.

Initially, the parents completed a short questionnaire, after which the mother recorded three irrelevant words on the audio tape. “Due to the age of the children, it was better to use invented words that are not familiar to children before,” the researchers said.

In addition to this, two women unknown to the children participated in the study, who also recorded three irrelevant words on the audio tape. Finally, the children listened to audio tapes.

The results of the study show that in 97% of cases, a child was able to recognize their mother’s voice from audio tapes while listening to it for only a few seconds. “A child’s brain also responds more and better to a mother’s voice than to an unknown woman’s voice,” the researchers found.

The child recognizes his mother’s voice before birth

This study complements a 2014 study by other researchers on the reactions of premature babies to their mothers ’voices. In this study, a finding was made that when a mother talks to her baby while she is still in the womb, the child will eat better and calm down more quickly in a stressful situation.

Hearing the mother’s voice lowers cortisol but raises oxytocin levels. Oxytocin hormones are attachment hormones.

The bond between the child and the mother is already formed when the child is in the mother’s womb, where the baby can already hear her mother’s voice and feel the vibrations caused by the voice. When a baby is born, she fully recognizes her mother’s voice and favors it among all other voices.

In this study, researchers said, “ The mother’s voice activates the child’s brain from the anterior prefrontal cortex as well as the posterior left temporal area more strongly than any other voice, preparing the baby for a specialized speech processing task.”

Abrams explains that while it was previously known that the mother’s voice contributes to a child’s emotional well-being, their current research finding proves that the biological process of the mother-child bond promotes the child’s better social and communicative skills.

The results of the study indicate that when a mother speaks to a child, many areas and systems of the child’s brain are activated. This research result is also good for children with some kind of special needs.

“It’s interesting to see how the mother’s voice evokes so many systems in a child’s brain,” the researcher at Harvard University concludes, while praising the power of the mother’s voice.