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  • Brief Communication
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Psychobiology

Speech sounds learned by sleeping newborns

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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Correspondence to M. Cheour.

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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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