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Speech sounds learned by sleeping newborns

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Abstract

It is not yet clear whether humans are able to learn while they are sleeping1,2. Here we show that full-term human newborns can be taught to discriminate between similar vowel sounds when they are fast asleep. It is possible that such sleep training soon after birth could find application in clinical or educational situations3,4.

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Figure 1: Mismatch negativity (MMN) results from two recording sessions, one in the evening and one the next morning, of responses to deviant speech sounds (y/i) in three groups (one experimental and two control groups) of human newborns.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Language and the Developing Brain Laboratory, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, and Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, 20100, Finland

    M. Cheour, O. Martynova, J. Hiltunen & H. Hämäläinen

  2. BioMag Laboratory, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, 00029, Finland

    M. Cheour

  3. Department of Psychology, Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Helsinki, 00014, Finland

    R. Näätänen & M.-L. Kaipio

  4. Helsinki Brain Research Centre, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, 00014, Finland

    R. Näätänen

  5. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Turku University Central Hospital, Turku, 20100, Finland

    R. Erkkola

  6. Department of Child Neurology, Turku University Central Hospital, Turku, 20100, Finland

    M. Sillanpää

  7. Department of Pediatrics, Turku University Central Hospital, Turku, 20100, Finland

    P. Kero

  8. Department of Psychiatry, Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, 10021, New York, USA

    A. Raz

  9. Department of Phonetics, University of Turku, Turku, 20100, Finland

    O. Aaltonen & J. Savela

Authors
  1. M. Cheour
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  2. O. Martynova
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  3. R. Näätänen
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  4. R. Erkkola
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  5. M. Sillanpää
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  6. P. Kero
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  7. A. Raz
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  8. M.-L. Kaipio
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  9. J. Hiltunen
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  10. O. Aaltonen
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  11. J. Savela
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  12. H. Hämäläinen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Cheour.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Cheour, M., Martynova, O., Näätänen, R. et al. Speech sounds learned by sleeping newborns. Nature 415, 599–600 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/415599b

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