Article Analysis Essay on Effects of Prenatal Music Exposure

Introduction

Some factors influence the development of the fetal brain. The elements have future consequences for the life of a toddler. Music is one of the stimulants of cognitive, motor, and language development in babies in both prenatal and postnatal stages. Researchers discovered that appropriate stimulation by exposure to music influences the behavior of the fetus and the same influence is transferred to the newborn phase. There is evidence that music is beneficial to the fetus as we find in this research article review.

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The Purpose

The main aim of the study was to help researchers to prove if prenatal exposure of music has a long-term neural impact on the newborn. There is a hypothesis that infants can respond to music while in the fetal stage. Also, the study was to prove the theory that infants recognize the music they perceived while in prenatal stage (Partanen, Kujala, Tervaniemi & Huotilainen, 2013). The researchers wanted to know if there are effects of music to infants when still in the womb and after they are born.

Participants

The participants of the study were healthy pregnant women. The mothers-to-be were twelve Finnish women who were bilingual. Apart from speaking Finnish, the women could also communicate in Swedish. The researchers ensured the women had singleton pregnancy without any complications. Later during the study, there were twelve new-borns from Finnish-Swedish mothers. The parents to the infants had to give a face to face approval for their babies to be used as samples. The women received a monetary token as an appreciation for allowing their babies to be the samples for study. The babies used for the research were ten and were referred to as the learning group. Besides the new-borns, there were also other four months old to act as the control group (Partanen, Kujala, Tervaniemi & Huotilainen, 2013). The learning group had their mothers play a melody in the last trimester five times a week. Infants in the control group were not exposed to any music while in the prenatal phase. Therefore the observers wanted to know how the learning group and the control groups will respond to the music.

Measures Under Study

The variables under study were the response of the infants to melodies, the age of the participating babies, the frequency of the music sound, and retaining of neural symbols by the toddlers. The researchers observed how the new-borns and toddlers responded to both changed and unchanged sound of the melody.

Instruments Used for the Study

The study would not be possible without instruments. Some of the tools used are; electrodes, loudspeakers, baby cribs, and infant car seat. The researchers placed the new-borns in the baby cribs during the recording. The four months old were placed in infant car seats. There was use of electrodes to monitor the reactions from participants, while the loudspeakers presented the sound to the babies. For the new-borns, the loudspeakers were placed twenty centimeters to the right and the left sides of their heads. For the four months old, the speaker systems were positioned one meter away from their heads. The amplifiers were placed far from the toddlers to prevent them from grabbing sound systems.

Findings

The results from the study indicated that there are creation and retaining of neural signs brought by experiencing music throughout the prenatal phase. The article shows that the learning group had a higher capacity to relate events as compared to the controlled group. The results also illustrated that if the infants are exposed to a series of melodies, there is a formation of neural symbols that last for a couple of months. The study also indicated that the learning group together with the controlled group have substantial MMRs to different echoes in the song. Generally, the outcomes illustrate that prenatal contact with melodies may have a permanent impact on the brain development of the fetus and improve the neural reactions of the infants (Partanen, Kujala, Tervaniemi & Huotilainen, 2013). The changes are long lasting if the prenatal experience to tune persists for four months.

Critique for the Study

The study did not diversify on the origin of the participants. The researchers only used Finnish- Swedish women thus limiting the geographic, race, and ethnic factors of the observers. There was also use of a single repeated melody. The researchers could have used a variety of music. There was also the omission of some electrodes during the subsequent recording because of the absence of signal. Omitting of electrodes might have tampered with the accuracy of the results hence raising the doubt about the analysis of the outcomes.

Relation of Study Findings to Other Course Readings

There have been studies on the effect of music on babies' development. There is a study that involved six women that were pregnant. The women were exposed to music to identify if the new-borns can recognize the music they perceived while still in the womb. The results showed that babies who overheard music while still in the womb reacted with attentiveness to the melodies. So, babies recognize the music they once perceived before being born. Recognition of prenatal music experiences may last up to one year and more. Thus, the exposure of music to fetus and babies have long-term effects on neural development.

Melodies exert an important position in the brain of a newborn. The musical sounds empowers infants to acquire rhythmical conventions of their first language. If toddlers lack the capability to hear rhythmically, then there will be rise in difficulties to learn language. Infants have an innate ability to sense musical elements of their native language and they can make a distinction between two languages according to their musical characteristics.

The Practical Implication of the Study

Since the fetus perceives sounds while in the uterus, an expectant woman exposed to too much noise may have destructive effects on the unborn baby. Additionally, since the exposure of the fetus to melody affected the baby even after birth, the continuous contact of the newborn to music has benefits of enhancing the auditory processes. Research also shows that music cognition has a bigger role in language acquisition in babies. Thus, toddlers and infants should be exposed to music regularly to enhance their language development skills.

Conclusion

Exposure to music affects the babies' neural stimulation. Therefore, mothers who want to listen to music should not put too much volume as the fetus' auditory hearing may be destroyed. The researchers recommend appropriate volume to boost the neural responsiveness of the fetus to the stimuli. Music is good for infants and toddlers as it encourages the learning abilities from the twenty-one days after birth up to the advanced age of the baby. Music exposure has been associated with language acquisition in infants. Consequently, caregivers, teachers, and parents should regularly expose toddlers and infants to music to improve their language acquisition and development abilities.

References

Partanen, E., Kujala, T., Tervaniemi, M., & Huotilainen, M. (2013). Prenatal music exposure induces long-term neural effects. PloS one, 8(10), e78946.