Prenatal/Infant Music Research

What’s all the fuss anyhow?

Everyone talks about the Mozart Effect but few know about the Puccini Effect™, which is a term I coined to show pregnant women and moms of all ages why their voices are so important to the development of their infants’ voices. You can read the article about the Puccini Effect™ and then check out these reference, article and research links to get a better understanding of just how important your voice is to your baby.

And more importantly, what you can easily do about it.

Infant Voice Neuroscience and other links in alphabetical order *

ABC News – an article about research done by Dr. Ruth Hewston, University of Warwick (UK) about singing and language development

American Psychological Association – an article, “Pitch Perfect,” about a recent study reported in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America about absolute pitch in infants and the relationship between musical pitches and early childhood language development

BBC – report about research published in the journal, Neuropsychology, regarding a study at the University of China, Hong Kong, and the positive influence of musical training on visual memory.

Beth Abraham’s Institute for Music and Neurologic Function – cognitive neuroscience and music processing in human function

Brain Facts – lots of interesting brain facts and figures taken from several different text books

Harvard University – “Music on the Brain” research about the biology of music

MuSICA – Music and Science Information Computer Archive has so many articles about the effects of music on the brain that it boggles my brain! Check them out. They’ve been around for a long time.

McMaster University, Toronto, Auditory Development Lab – studies about how infants perceive sound and the connection between music and language

National Center for Biotechnology Information – 14+ studies on infant speech

Rice University Shepherd School of Music – Singing encourages brain and language development

Telegraph (UK) – The Healing Power of Song – An article that addresses the physical and mental benefits of singing, including how singing releases endorphins in the brain, how melodies impact speech and language development in babies and other information about singing and health

Unité Neuroimagerie Cognitive (France) – Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of speech perception in infants

University of Connecticut & Max Planck Institute (Leipzig, Germany) – Joint developmental science report (abstract) about auditory-oral matching behavior in newborns

University of Indiana – Vocalizations and social interactions in infant language development with link to excellent audio examples and their corresponding amplitude and frequency measurement charts

University of Washington Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences – Dr. Patricia Kuhl’s extensive work on infant brain development, including how maternal voice patterns impact infant language development

University of Texas at Austin – Baby babble’s first vowel and consonant sounds ‘aw’ and ‘m’ linked to languages worldwide

Wikipedia – description of the primary auditory cortex of the brain, including Brodmann areas 41&42

Wikipedia – description of Brodmann Area 22 in the brain (Wernicke’s area)and its relationship to language skills

The optimum time for your baby is during pregnancy and 3 years so GET STARTED NOW!.