EVIDENCE OF ATTENTION AND MEMORY IN BABIES:

A COMPARISON BETWEEN INTRA-UTERINE AND POST-NATAL LIFE

Eliane Leão, Edna Aparecida Costa Vieira, Antônio Carlos Prado

INTRODUCTION

The present work is the result of investigations in the Creativity Research Directory, Cognitive Processes and Interdisciplinarity, CNPq/UFG. It produced results presented in 2004 at the 56th SBPC, and for being a longitudinal study, showed new results. Theoretically grounded in Eliane Figueiredo’s studies (1996) and Glenn Doman (1996), Vieira & Leão (2003, 2004) study the influence of music on cognitive development and has already produced works on themes such as the importance of music in teaching babies and pre-literacy youths to read. Some authors, in researching the relationship between intra-uterine and post-natal life, compiled a brief review of the mechanisms of the development of fetal hearing as well as newborn hearing. They suggested that the maturing of the audio function may serve as criteria for accompanying the maturing of the fetal nervous system. Hodges (2000) attests that the research on neurology has demonstrated that all human beings are born with a musical brain, and recommends that more research be done to prove these connections between music and the other forms of intelligence. Wilkin (1991) makes a clinical analysis of the musical stimuli as it is proposed in this present work. For him, fetuses respond to the musical stimulus of the piano more than that of rock music and equal or greater than that of a choir, demonstrating that the existent research contributes to music education. What the fetus experiences emotionally and cognitively will influence the emotional and cognitive responses later in life.

METHODOLOGY

The experiment began in July of 2003 aiming to verify the influence of music (the musical stimulus consisted of three cuts) on the behavior and learning of two babies during the gestational period. To collect data, the mothers were prepared before the 12th week. The first video to observe the babies´ reaction to the stimulus was made in the 22nd week. The other tapings occurred on the 24th, 28th, 32nd, and 34th. This step observed the development of attention and memory in comparing the intra-uterine reaction to the post-partum ones. To proceed with the observation, it was established criteria for evidence of movement: of members (none, moderate, intense); of torso rotation; of eyes (blinking); facial (swallowing, smiling). The mothers´ musical preference was also observed. To establish cognitive recognition of musical stimulus, a second criterion was to take note of attention, memory, satisfaction, and dissatisfaction. The cognitive recognition, that which the baby repeats, was defined as different from spontaneous movement (Santos, et alli, 1987). For the analysis, evidence of movement were compared with evidence of cognitive recognition of the musical stimulus. A descriptive analysis of the evidence was made. After labor, the babies were taped so that there could be documentation of the reaction to the musical stimuli enabling the comparison of the two phases, proving the hypothesis that music influences the cognitive development of babies.

RESULTS

The observation led to the description of two cases. The movement that occurred within the uterus and was maintained after labor was considered significant. From one to five, the musical stimuli were: 1) animal sounds; 2) folk music; 3) percussion; 4) Brahm´s Concert #1 for violin; and 5) aloud reading in the mother’s voice. Baby L.V.L., exposed to the five stimuli, demonstrated: to stimulus 1) no movement of members (attention and memory); 2) intense movement of upper and lower members, torso and face (satisfaction, memory and attention); 3) dissatisfaction (attention and memory); 4) facial movement (satisfaction, memory and attention); 5) moderate movement of upper and lower members, and face (satisfaction, memory, and attention). Baby T.J., exposed to the same stimuli, demonstrated: to stimulus 1) intense movement of upper and lower members (satisfaction, attention, and memory); 2) intense movement of upper and lower members, torso and face (satisfaction, attention, and memory); 3) intense rotation of torso, head, and members (satisfaction, memory, and attention); 4) no movement of members (attention and memory); 5) moderate movements of upper and lower members, face (satisfaction, memory, and attention).

CONCLUSION

Once the movements described above as well as referent evidence in cognitive development were observed, it was confirmed the hypothesis that babies exposed to musical stimuli in the gestational period maintain the same behavior demonstrated in the 22nd week, 24th, 28th, 32nd, and 34th (object-period of this observation), if considered the observation made on the 14th and 45th days after birth. Maintenance of the same movements and facial expressions may be demonstrating that the babies continue exercising intra-uterine attention and memory when they retain the same gestures after birth. The influence of these results to literature in the music education area may change directions as far as dates in which it is presupposed the possibility to initiate the teaching of music to a human being. If music represents and has effects which lead the fetus to manifest him/herself regarding his/her hearing in intra-uterine life, it is questioned how important anticipating the child’s music initiation can become.

REFERENCES

Doman, Glenn. Como Ensinar Seu Bebê a Ler. 6ª Ed. Porto Alegre: Arte e Ofícios, 1996. (English Version: How To Teach Your Baby How to Read, Glenn Doman)

Figueiredo, Eliane Leão. Um Desafio à Alfabetização: Os Bebês Podem e Devem Ler. Ed. Pioneira, São Paulo, SP, 1996. (English Version: Babies Can (and did!) Read Ebook, 2006)

Hodges, Donald A. Implications of Music and Brain Research. Music Educators Journal, v. 87, n.2, September, 2000.

Santos, Jorge Francisco Kuhn dos; Feres, Márcia Cristina; Motta, Elisa Zingan; Camano, Luiz; Oliveira, Anna Maria.Analysis Of Fectal Body Movement Through Antepartum Cardiotocography At Pre-term. In http://bases.bireme.br/cgi-bin/wxislind.exe/iah/online/, 2004.

Vieira, Edna Aparecida Costa & Leão, Eliane & Prado, Antônio Carlos. Música: Um Estímulo à Cognição de Bebês. In: 56ª SBPC. Julho, 2004. (Annals of the 56th Meeting of the Brazilian Society for Scientific Research, SBPC, 2004)