[Fetal perception and discrimination of speech stimuli; demonstration by cardiac reactivity; preliminary results].
Human fetuses (35-38 ws GA), exposed to a repeated pair of syllables, either [ba] [bi] or [bi] [ba], at 95 dB SPL when in a low heart rate variability state, display a significant heart rate deceleration. Changing the order of the syllables in the pair, [ba] [bi] becoming [bi] [ba] (or the reverse), induces a new cardiac deceleration. This suggests that fetuses demonstrate auditory discrimination abilities for speech units like syllables.
D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000502:physiology*; D006340:Heart Rate, Fetal; D006801:Humans; D010700:Phonetics; D011247:Pregnancy; D011263:Pregnancy Trimester, Third; D013067:Speech Perception
Perception et discrimination foetales de stimuli langagiers; mise en évidence à partir de la réactivité cardiaque; résultats préliminaires.