Mother's voice recording improves language center development in premature babies' brains

Premature babies who heard recordings of their mothers reading showed more mature white matter in a key brain language area, a Stanford Medicine study found. The randomized controlled trial exposed hospitalized preemies to their mothers' voices, revealing enhanced development of language pathways compared to a control group. This marks the first causal evidence of speech experience impacting early brain development. This intervention, playing recordings for a few weeks, suggests a potentially transformative approach to neonatal care for improving language outcomes in premature infants.