Prenatal memory?
Q: I am adopted. For many years whenever I was sad, frightened, depressed etc. I would imagine that I was hearing soothing voices, speaking in French.
At the age of 50 I discovered that my bio-mother and bio-grandmother only communicated in French. To be clear, I had no knowledge that I was of French ancestry prior to this.
If this is of any interest to you or a colleague, please let me know, I am willing to verify this story by polygraph.
A: Dear Lauri,
If you are sure that you could hear the sounds of French language only in prenatal period, it's not unusual. This is not exactly the area of my expertise, but I will definitely pass the information. You might find interesting the pieces of facts below:
Fetal memory was first recognized in 1925. Recent experiments show that functional memory of newborn is developed in the prenatal period. By week 14, fetal movements may be spontaneous or may be evoked, reflecting the brain’s capacity to process short-term and long-term information. Habituation as a form of memory to visual, acoustic, olfactory and taste stimuli has been considered by researchers to be based on learning [1].
Hypotheses about fetal memory functions currently being studied include the acquisition of language. Recent studies have shown that the mother’s voice transmitted by the bones, stands out in the uterine environment. The sounds of prenatal life are recognized by fetuses and may be recalled by the baby. Newborns recognize music that the mother listened to during pregnancy, after week 30 [2]
Sources:
1. Hepper PG (1996) Fetal memory: does it exist? What does it do? Acta Pediatr 416:16–20
2. Johansson B, Wedenberg E, Westin B (1992) Fetal heart rate response to acoustic stimulation in relation to fetal development and hearing impairment. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 71:610–615
Tanya Zilberter
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