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This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔。

Fifteen million babies are born prematurely¹ every year, worldwide. In some cases, the early births can be life-threatening—or cause developmental issues.

全世界每年有1500万早产儿出生。在某些情况下，早产可能会危及生命，或导致发育问题。

"They have more attention-deficit difficulties. They can have a higher risk of having autism, and in general socio-emotional regulation issues." Petra Hüppi, a pediatrician and neonatologist at the University Hospital of Geneva.

“早产儿更有可能有注意力缺失的问题。他们患自闭症的风险更高，一般来说，他们也更可能产生社会情绪调节问题。”日内瓦大学医院的儿科医生和新生儿学家佩特拉·胡皮说到。

Now, she and her colleagues have evidence that a simple tool could help those preterm babies' brains develop: music. But before you cue the Amadeus:

现在，她和同事有证据表明，一种简单的工具有助于早产儿的大脑发育：音乐。（莫扎特的音乐）不过在你提莫扎特之前：

"When I thought about Mozart, I thought, this is a very complex musical structure and I could hardly imagine that such an immature² brain would be able to fully³ capture the complexity⁴ of Mozart."

“当我想到莫扎特时，就会想到他那极为复杂的音乐结构，我无法想象如此不成熟的婴儿大脑能完全捕捉到莫扎特音乐的复杂性。”

So instead, she recruited the harpist Andreas Vollenweider, who worked with neonatal nurses to determine which sounds would most stimulate⁵ infants' brains. He then composed a suite⁶ of three eight-minute-long tracks, which the nurses played to 20 preterm babies using wireless⁷ headphones embedded⁸ in little baby caps. Each baby heard five tracks a week for six weeks on average.

因此，她聘请了竖琴师安德列斯·佛伦怀德，由他与新生儿护士合作，确定哪种声音最能刺激婴儿的大脑。之后，他创作了一套由3首8分钟长的乐曲组成的组曲，护士用嵌在婴儿帽中的无线耳机播放给20名早产儿听。在六周内，每名婴儿平均每周听五首乐曲。

Then Hüppi's team used MRIs to visualize⁹ activity in the babies' brains. And what they found was that preemies who listened to tunes¹¹ had brain networks that more closely resembled those of full-term babies compared to their counterparts who didn't get the treatment. The music listeners had greater connectivity among brain regions, such as areas involved in sensory¹² and higher-order cognitive¹³ functions—indicating that music listening might have enduring effects on brain development.

然后，胡皮团队用核磁共振成像呈现婴儿大脑的活动。他们发现，与没有接受这种治疗的早产儿相比，听音乐的早产儿的大脑网络更接近足月婴儿。听音乐者大脑区域之间的连通性更强，这些区域包括涉及感官和高级认知功能的区域——这表明听音乐可能对大脑发育有持久影响。

The details are in the Proceedings¹⁴ of the National Academy of Sciences.

详情刊登在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。

Of course, many questions still remain. "How much should they listen to that? Was the music given in the right way? Would it be much better if it was something more lively than recorded music? Was it too simple? Could it be more complex?"

当然，现在还有很多问题没有得到解答。“早产儿应该听多少音乐？播放音乐的方式是否正确？如果换成比录制音乐更生动的音乐，效果会更好吗？音乐是不是太简单了？音乐可以更复杂些吗？”

But Hüppi said one thing parents can already do is sing to their children. Plus, she said, it doesn't really matter if you can carry a tune¹⁰.

但胡皮表示，父母已经可以做的一件事就是给孩子唱歌。此外，她还说唱歌跑不跑调其实并不重要。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。