What a Fetus Hears
医学界认定胎儿在孕期十六周即有完好的触觉和味觉。十八周的的胎儿对光已经会产生反应。二十周的胎儿则发展出听觉，此时的胎儿并有做梦、记忆和思考的能力。就是说，除去了生理上的发展成长外，胎儿的心灵和灵性在生产前已经开始酝酿和培养了。在胎儿二十至二十二周开如胎教已经可行了。4个月的胎儿就有了听觉。6个月时胎儿的听力几乎和成人相等。外界的声音都可以传到子宫里。但胎儿对500-1500赫兹的声音感觉比较舒服，喜欢听节奏平缓、流畅、柔和的音乐，讨厌强快节奏的“迪斯科”，更害怕各种能致命的噪音。 8个月的胎儿能够区别声音的种类，听出音调的高低、强弱，能分辨出是爸爸还是妈妈在讲话。
Did you ever do this when you were young: Dive to the bottom of a swimming pool with a friend, then have your friend yell a phrase into the water?
You listen to the phrase all low and garbled, then try to guess what it was. This low, muffled, underwater noise is how the world would sound if you were inside a womb.
Researchers have placed tiny microphones inside a pregnant woman’s uterus. They found that outside noises became much lower and muffled, and about thirty decibels quieter. Do these noises just wash around the fetus like so much amniotic fluid, or can the fetus actually hear them?
Actually, after twenty eight weeks a fetus begins to hear the internal sounds of its mother’s body–the rush of blood and the rumble of the digestive system. By the third trimester, the fetus can respond to external noises too. As many expectant mothers know, a sudden car horn can start a fetus kicking.
Not only can fetuses hear outside noises, they sometimes remember what they’ve heard. One study found that infants who repeatedly heard a soap opera theme song in the womb reacted positively when they heard that same music after birth.
Perhaps this ability to remember helps a newborn recognize its mother’s voice. A fetus can’t hear specific words or intonation–these are too muffled. Instead, they remember the rhythm of their mothers’ voices. To check this out, researchers gave newborns a special nipple rigged to a tape recorder. By changing the way they sucked, these infants could modify the cadence of a prerecorded voice. Eighty percent of these newborns sucked in the way that produced a voice with their mother’s specific rhythm.
译文：
你年轻的时候有没有这样做过呢？与朋友一起潜入游泳池底部，然后让你的朋友在水中冲你喊一句话。
你听到模糊不清的句子，然后努力猜测那是什么。这种沉闷的水下声音就如你在还在子宫时能听得到的声音。
研究人员在孕妇的子宫体内安置了一个微型麦克风，他们发现外界的声音变得更小更低沉，安静了大概30分贝。这些声音只是像羊水那样环绕在子宫周围？还是胎儿能够听到它们？
事实上，28周后胎儿开始听到母亲体内的声音-血液流淌声和消化系统的隆隆声。到了妊娠晚期，胎儿也能对外界的声音有反应。就如许多准妈妈知道的那样，突如其来的汽车喇叭声也能引起胎儿的踢动。
胎儿不仅能够听到外界的声音，他们有时也会记住他们所听到的。一项研究发现，婴儿出生后，会对在子宫里反复听到的肥皂剧的主题曲做出积极的反应。
或许这种记忆能力帮助一个新生儿认出母亲的声音。胎儿不能听到具体的词或者声调-这些都太低沉了。相反地，他们记得住母亲声音的节奏。为了验证这一点，研究人员给了新生儿一个特殊的与录音机相连的奶嘴。通过变换他们吸允的方式，这些婴儿能够改变预先录制的语音节奏。百分之八十的新生儿吸吮时的声音与母亲声音的特定节奏一致。 |