Part Two - Post-natal psychology. Part two of a two-part examination of…
The Secret Life of Babies - Part One
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
Thirty years ago the conventional wisdom was that the fetus in the womb could not hear. Today scientists have shown that by the seventh month of pregnancy, all five of the fetus's senses are working and that the baby may actually remember and learn from prenatal experiences.
THE SECRET LIFE OF BABIES, a two-part documentary, explores the extent of the baby's vast world of perceptions, from intrauterine life (Part 1) to the first months following birth (Part 2). How does the baby perceive its world and ours? What are its capacities for learning and memorizing? Do babies respond to the voices of their mothers and other external stimuli? What happens when the baby leaves the intrauterine environment of amniotic fluid, where all its needs were satisfied almost instantly, and enters the world of air and gravity?
Filmed in France, Canada and the U.S., the documentary features remarkable intrauterine footage showing the fetus's response to external stimuli, evoking a sense of awe at the wondrous experience of childbirth. Through interviews with some of the world's leading cognitive and developmental psychologists, doctors, and scientists-including Dr. Anthony DeCasper (University of North Carolina, Greensboro), a specialist in the early development of human perception, Dr. Robert Lickliter (Florida International University), co-Director of the Infant Development Research Center, Dr. Linka Polka (McGill University), Director of McGill's inter-disciplinary doctoral program in language acquisition, and others-this film reveals what we know today about the baby's experiences before and after birth, in particular how it organizes its perceptions and how this relates to fundamental and lifelong questions of memory, language and learning.
THE SECRET LIFE OF BABIES shows that, although all the brain's neurons are present when the baby is born, the process of connecting them, and of acquiring and organizing information, continues well into the teenage years. Indeed, the brain's processing of experience is a lifelong activity, and, in that sense, being alive is being perpetually born.
Dr. Anthony DeCasper is a Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. His research specialties include the early development of human perception and learning from the prenatal period to the preschool years. Dr. DeCasper received his PhD from Emory University in 1974.
Dr. Robert Lickliter is a Professor of Psychology at Florida International University. He is also the Co-Director of the Infant Development Research Center at Florida International University as well as a Research Professor of Pediatrics at University of Miami Medical School. Dr. Lickliter received his PhD from the University of California, Davis in 1983.
Dr. Lorraine Bahrick is a Professor of Psychology at Florida International University. She received her PhD in Experimental/Cognitive Psychology from Cornell University in 1979.
Dr. Linka Polka is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University. She is also the Interim Director of McGill's inter-disciplinary doctoral program in language acquisition. Dr. Polka received her PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Minnesota.;;Dr. Barbara Kisilevsky is a Professor of Nursing at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. She received her PhD from Queens University.
'Enlightening...A thought-provoking, frequently illuminating analysis of a cutting-edge topic of both academic and general interest, this is highly recommended.'-Video Librarian
'With a great deal of sensitivity and concrete examples, the film reveals the state of contemporary research. It attempts to understand how, and with what knowledge and capacities, humans are born. This documentary has the grand merit of posing questions that any parent, or anyone observing a newborn, would eventually ask.'-L'Humanité
'Beautiful and well done, the material is intrinsically interesting, and there are some wonderful ultrasound views of the fetus and videos taken through a fetoscope.'-Science Books and Films
'Fascinating... parents, medical professionals, and students involved in neo-natal care will benefit greatly from seeing this documentary.' Leonardo On-Line Reviews
Citation
Main credits
George, Bernard (film director)
Other credits
Image, Jean-Louis Laforêt [and 3 others]; montage, Pierre-Joseph Licidé; musique originale, Robert Baccherini.
Distributor subjects
Biology; Family Relations; Health Issues; Medicine; Neuroscience and Neurology; Psychology; Science; Women's Health; Women's StudiesKeywords
WEBVTT
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[sil.]
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[music]
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The prenatal period has typically been vastly overlooked or
under-appreciated as, arguably, the most important period
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in human development. I find it interesting
that, for most of us, we don\'t even acknowledge
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our prenatal development in the
sense that we consider ourself
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one year of age after a year of post-natal
development. So we don\'t even acknowledge
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our first, arguably, most important, nine
months of life, when we give our birth
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date, for example, or our age.
The human fetus was
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long believed to be an indifferent
organism, deaf to his own world and ours,
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content to await birth passively in his mother\'s
womb. Then researchers demonstrated that by the
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seventh month of gestation, all five
of the fetal senses were functional.
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Fetuses, uh, their, all their
senses work before they\'re born.
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Uh, their memory works before they\'re born.
Learning works before they\'re born.
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In fact, I don\'t believe there\'s much
of a difference in the, in the state
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of the baby in the last weeks,
months of pregnancy and then
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after birth. And we know that because
of premature babies, for one.
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So, so the fetus has, the
senses work toward the end.
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It tastes and smells things
the mother eats and ingests.
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It hears things the mother says. It
hears sounds around the mother like,
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if she plays the harp.
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[music]
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[music] With the awakening of the senses,
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the fetus makes a link between two lives.
His previous one, in a
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closed liquid world which unfolded in a
temporal dimension that is not our own,
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and the one he is embarking
on made of air and gravity.
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What relationship does he establish
between our world and his? How
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long will he remember his earliest life?
What is the true range of his abilities?
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These are the types of questions research
on human development tries to answer.
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[sil.]
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[music] The earliest
research on prenatal sensory
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perception concerns sound, with the idea that
we might be able to establish some sort of
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communication with the fetus.
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For the past 20 years, Carolyn Granier-Deferre
has been carrying out research aimed at
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determining fetal hearing abilities and
the links between hearing and fetal
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development.
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[music]
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The fetal auditory system
becomes functional
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during the last six to eight weeks prior to birth.
The way in which it is significantly different from
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our own, is that the sounds the fetus
perceives are transmitted by water, not
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air. Should we therefore compare fetal
hearing to what we experience when we dive
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under water?
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[sil.] How can we know if the
fetus is reacting to the signals
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we aim at him? Apparently, the fetal
heart rate is the only reliable
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sign of his reaction. His heart beats twice
as fast as an adults, as if he were living a
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double life. Although he is
sleeping, his senses remain on
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constant alert. From within his
sleep, he perceives our world
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and deepens his knowledge of his. For us, the
chief difference is between sleeping and
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being awake. But the world of the child in
the mother\'s womb does not obey the same
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cycles as ours.
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[sil.] He can hear, but
does he know the difference
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between words, noise and music? This is
the purpose of the study underway here.
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The fetus has been played a tape
of a voice speaking Icelandic, a
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language he can never have heard before,
followed by white noise within the same
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frequency range as the voice.
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[sil.] When the sound is played, if the
fetus hears it, his heart rate changes.
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If the sound continues, he adjusts to it
and his heart rate slows to normal again.
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If we then send another sound signal and
his heart rate undergoes a second change,
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researchers assume that he has heard
the difference between the two sounds.
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[sil.] Seems like,
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uh, children are beginning to
recognize the rhythmic patterns
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of different languages, even before they\'re born
and I think they can do this because their brains
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are looking for rhythms in the sounds
that actually get into the womb
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before they\'re born.
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[sil.] Just before the
ultrasound procedure,
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mother drank a sweet drink. The stimulation
already elicits a specific behavior
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from the fetus. His taste organs
become functional in the sixth month
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of gestation.
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[music]
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[sil.]
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[sil.]
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[sil.]
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[sil.]
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[music] After around seven
months of gestation,
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when the fetus still has a bit or room
in the uterus, he dances, spins around,
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raises his head. There seems to
be some underlying reason for
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this prenatal dance, but we
can\'t figure it out yet.
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[music]
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How does the fetus react to the movements
of the body of which he is part?
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He is capable of perceiving a movement and
responding to it with one of his own.
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This ability involves two systems.
First, the one controlling
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his muscles, tendons and joints. And
second, the more subtle system of balance,
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located in the auditory canal - a
part of what we call the inner ear.
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[sil.] In utero, the
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fetus experiences a sort-of dual gravitational
register. His own and that of his mother.
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One of the ways his world
differs from ours.
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[sil.] And she stood up for a few moments,
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and she walked around the room
for a few moments. And she came
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back and stood still for a few moments.
Then she sat down.
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That\'s it. Happens hundreds of times a day.
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And when she stood up, the baby\'s
heart-rate went boop boop.
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And she began to walk, the baby\'s
heart rate didn\'t too much -
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little bit - but then it stopped. Which
tells me that in the normal act of
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moving and carrying out the business of
life, the baby doesn\'t react all the time.
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So, this baby is experiencing
the movements of life.
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[music]
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[music]
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[music]
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[sil.] Is the fetus
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sensitive to vibratory waves in the
amniotic fluid the way a fish is?
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We know that his sense of touch
functions and that if we inject a
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little cold water into his inner sea, the fetus
immediately displays a sharp increase in heart rate.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:18.000
So how much does he feel in his ocean?
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[sil.] And yet the sense
of vision functions.
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If a flashlight is aimed at the
mother\'s belly, the fetus inside
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reacts to the beam produced by the photons.
So what does he see of his world?
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When the mother herself is
afloat in a liquid world, what
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does the fetus feel? In any case, the
mother is the link which transmits stimuli
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
to the fetus from the outer world
to the inner one. She feels
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and perceives while he receives, but he
transforms, develops and structures his own
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specific unique experience. In
the case of Heloise, who is a
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
musician, her fetus receives a
distinct sort of sound stimulus on a
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
daily basis. What I remember
was that the - her baby,
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
was in, uh, an active state.
The heart rate tracing
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
was very, uh, irregular. It was
variable, which is normal. But it just
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
indicated the baby was in a
very active state. And, uh,
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
when she began to play this piece...
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:43.000
[music]
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
The fetus - her baby\'s heart rate
- the fetus just went flat -
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became very calm, very regular. And
the baby changed its condition.
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
Just like that. It was amazing to see.
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
[music] Look. Oh! See? See?
And then you began to
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
play the melody. Right here.
Watch. Oh, I see,
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:28.000
yeah.
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:08.000
[sil.] Therefore the volume of
the sound he perceives matters
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
less to the fetus, than his familiarity with
it. And if he can be familiar with something,
00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
that means he has a memory.
Late in gestation,
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
the fetus would thus be able to memorize certain
stimuli and thus embark on a form of learning.
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
These fundamental questions about memory
and learning have received particular
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
attention in the United States where significant
insight has been gained from animal
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
research. Animal research provides us
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
of an important and often underappreciated
00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
path to making the questions we ask, when
we work in the field of human development,
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
more relevant and more appropriate.
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
Research carried out with quails
thus made it possible to demonstrate
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
that the embryo can learn a given maternal
call which she remembers after hatching.
00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
But the most striking find was that this
information was learned four times faster and
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
lasted four times as long if researchers
added a flash signal to the sound
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
stimulus. In other words, learning is twice
as efficient if two senses are engaged
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
rather than just one. So this
led us then to the studies that
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
we\'re currently doing with our colleagues in
Canada at Queen\'s College where we\'re looking at,
00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
is it possible that the same kind
of power of redundancy holds
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
for the human fetus as it
does for the quail embryo.
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:48.000
[sil.] Do fetuses learn
more efficiently or faster
00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
if you provide the same information through two modalities instead
of one? So we\'re providing it through the auditory system, so
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they hear music and we\'re providing
it through the vestibular system,
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
because the mother is swaying. So we
have three groups of pregnant women. In
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
one group, the fetus is going to both hear
the music and the mother\'s going to sway
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
to the music, so the baby\'s going to have
both auditory and vestibular stimulation.
00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
In another group, the mother will sway to
the music, but the music will be played to
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
the mother through headphones, so the fetus won\'t
be able to hear the music. And in the third group,
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
the mother will simply sit
quietly so she won\'t sway,
00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
but the music will be on in the environment.
We have, um, sort of three parts
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
to the study. In the first part,
we have the mother come into
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the laboratory and what we do is
measure the fetus\' heart rate and
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
body movements to the music.
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
And that\'s the first time the fetus
will have ever heard the music.
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After we do that, it\'s the same music. We give
the mother, uh, a CD to take home with her
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and then we give her instructions on what she\'s to do at
home. And she\'s randomly assigned to one of three groups.
00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:18.000
[music] And then after five days,
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
on the sixth day, she comes back to the laboratory and
then, what we\'re measuring when the fetus comes to the
00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
lab, is we\'re looking at the fetus\' heart rate.
How does the change, he or she, change his heart
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
rate to the familiar music, which
is the music he\'s heard at home
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
or she\'s heard at home and
a novel piece of music?
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
Although this research is still in its
earliest stages, it tends to prove
00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
that the fetus, who just 30 years ago
was believed to be unable to hear, is
00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
actually capable of learning and can
learn more efficiently if two senses are
00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
engaged rather than just one. Although the
results have yet to be fully confirmed,
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
the mere suggestion that the fetus
is able to remember stimuli has had
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
a major impact on certain American
parents, some of whom enroll in prenatal
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
universities. Their goal - to
possibly make future generations into
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
geniuses. Come on. Dad wants to play now.
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
There he goes. That was a kick.
(laughing) Yeah. I\'ve got feet here.
00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
[sil.] Now go back over
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
here. Oh. I got something
right here in my hands.
00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
There you are boy! My little baby.
00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
We had some classical CDs because
I had heard information that, uh,
00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
with the child listening to that
kind of music within the womb,
00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
that it does make them a little bit smarter,
more intelligent after birth, and, and so forth.
00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
So I made specific times a day that,
that she would listen to, um, Mozart,
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
Bach, and it was a CD specifically
for babies. Rub your hands together.
00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
The infant, as well as the
fetus, has a window of optimal
00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
arousal or a window of
optimal range of experience
00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
which is closely tied to
what infants and fetuses
00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
typically encounter under normal
conditions. So, to over-stimulate
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
or over-arouse or provide great
amounts of extra stimulation
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
or experience to the fetus, is
likely a negative rather than
00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
a positive promoter of normal development.
The fetus expects to
00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
encounter a particular range of
stimulation. And that range of stimulation
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
is what\'s normally available during
the typical day of the mother in the
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
world.
00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
[sil.]
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:08.000
[music]
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:08.000
[sil.]
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:33.000
[sil.]
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:13.000
[sil.]
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:08.000
[music]
00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:43.000
[music]
00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:58.000
[music]
00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
[music]
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:13.000
[music]
00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:18.000
[music]
00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:28.000
[music]
00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
In his mother\'s womb, baby is now about to come
into our world. He has been growing in a sealed-off
00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
world in a time dimension which
seems quite different from our own.
00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
How will he adapt to the world awaiting
him? A world of light, air and
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
gravity? How will he react to this
huge change in his environment?
00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
Will he maintain a vestigial memory of
his uterine life and the experiences
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
he had through his mother? These
are the types of questions
00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
being asked by specialists seeking
clues to the mystery of human
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:45.000
development.
00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:15.000
[music]
00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:28.000
[music]
00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:33.000
[music]
00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
[sil.] The human being is
the only mammal that cries
00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
at birth. Does he cry because he has
been torn away from his first life?
00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
He knows he is coming into the
world and that from now on,
00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:20.000
he;ll have no choice but to adopt to it.
00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:33.000
[music] When Eytan made the
transition from water to air,
00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
he swallowed a little fluid and
has to be aspirated for his
00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
own comfort. Immediately, baby
perceives the range of differences
00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:58.000
facing him.
00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:13.000
[music] One of the things
to appreciate about
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
the young newborn infant,
as it has just emerged from
00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
the uterus into the world, is
that it is a relatively naive
00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
perceiver, meaning it hasn\'t been in
the world before. So how it comes
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
to organize its attention and its
perceptual processing to guide its learning
00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
and memory, is something that we would very
much like to understand more deeply and fully.
00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
And probably the best clue
that we have on how very young
00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
infants, in the newborn stage, organize
their selective attention, comes from
00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
the perspective of what would be
familiar to them in the world,
00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:18.000
given they haven\'t been here before.
00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
Baby\'s arrival on the planet is guided
by his mother\'s voice and smell.
00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
Which of baby\'s perceptions will he
remember from his previous life?
00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
What baggage does he bring? Does he
recall the sounds he heard from inside
00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
the womb? For Ondine, Heloise\'s
little girl, the question is
00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
especially interesting. How will she
react when she hears her mother playing
00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
the harp? Doctor Carolyn Granier-Deferre
and her team at Port-Royal
00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
Hospital are investigating the question
by observing variations in the baby\'s
00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
heart rate. They may be able to
demonstrate that Ondine is familiar with
00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
the music she heard in utero
- that she has a memory.
00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:28.000
[music]
00:51:55.000 --> 00:52:03.000
[music]
00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:48.000
[sil.]
00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:58.000
[music]
00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:13.000
[music]
00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:23.000
[music]
00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
But it\'s interesting to me, that it
00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
doesn\'t really matter what the
event is, the experience,
00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
because in some sense it has no meaning to
them. It just happens. But after they\'re born,
00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
and they encounter that
event again, they seem to
00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
like it in the sense that it\'s
calming, like the music with Heloise.
00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
Uh, they\'re attracted to it.
They pay attention to it.
00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.999
It\'s a, not a bad thing for them.
They\'re not afraid of it. They tend to
00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
be attracted to it, in fact. Prenatal
experiences, I think, provide a stepping stone,
00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
a building block because, uh, it\'s
just a beginning of development.
00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
There\'s a whole life in front of this baby where
new experiences will occur. But the life begins
00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
in utero, then individual life
with individual memories.
00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
So, um, I don\'t believe anything is lost.
00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
I think it\'s just the beginning.
00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:43.000
[music] Birth is a beginning
which confronts baby with a
00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
flood of new events in perception. This
is the case with vision, for example,
00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
which requires the acquisition of movement
perception, colors and focus on the image.
00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
What the infant discovers in the outer
world bears absolutely no comparison
00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
to what he\'s able to perceive in his mother\'s
womb. It is the basic question of the role of our
00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:13.000
perceptions.
00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.999
Noham, who is not yet 40 hours
old, is taking part in a test.
00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.999
Is he already capable of visual
recognition of an object
00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:09.999
he hitherto only touched? In other words, does his
brain have the ability to transfer information
00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.999
from one compartment to another? From
one sense to another? In this case,
00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:23.000
from tactile perception to sight?
00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:54.999
[music]
00:57:55.000 --> 00:57:59.999
After he has gotten used to touching a
small cylindrical object with his hand,
00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:04.999
he is presented with the sight of the
same object and a second different
00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:09.999
one.
00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:18.000
[music] In 98% of the cases, the newborn
00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.999
merely glances at the object he has already
touched for a few seconds as if he had
00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:29.999
recognized it as being familiar,
whereas he stares at the new
00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:38.000
object.
00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:34.999
This amazing capacity for
astonishment and adaptation
00:59:35.000 --> 00:59:39.999
is the motor for learning. We
discover, remember or forget
00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:44.999
in the course of these sensorial experiences
which gradually shape the creatures we
00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:49.999
become.
00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:58.000
[music]
01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:04.999
At Paris Universite Rene
Descartes, research
01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:09.999
on visual perception is underway. How
does the baby learn to differentiate
01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:14.999
between the faces of those around him?
How does he distinguish between what is
01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:23.000
familiar and what is different?
01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:29.999
[music] How can we question
01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:34.999
baby? How can he give us an answer?
We observe his head movements
01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:39.999
and the amount of time he gazes at one picture or
another. For this experiment on face recognition,
01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:44.999
he is shown the same face several
times and then another different one.
01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:49.999
If he focuses attention on the last one,
researchers conclude that he differentiated
01:00:50.000 --> 01:00:58.000
between them.
01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:13.000
[sil.] The infant is able to
01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:29.999
differentiate between the faces he
encounters regardless of their type.
01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:34.999
This ability is lacking in the adult
who differentiates only between
01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:43.000
faces familiar to him.
01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:58.000
[music]
01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:05.000
[sil.]
01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:18.000
[music]
01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.999
Babies experience with seeing and
how it helps them learn about
01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:39.999
life, interests researchers because it also reflects
its ability to adapt to the complexity of the world.
01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:44.999
What happens when movement
and action are introduced?
01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:49.999
At the University of Florida, the question
gave rise to an exciting experiment.
01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:58.000
[sil.]
01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:04.999
A lot of the research on face perception
just deals with static images of faces,
01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:09.999
and so we don\'t really know how this
generalizes to the world of faces
01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:14.999
in the context of people engaged
in activities or speaking, um,
01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:19.999
and so forth and we suspected that, um,
there probably was quite a difference
01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:24.999
between how they attended to information
in static images and in real, real dynamic
01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:29.999
events. So, the closest we could get to
that was, um, showing infants movies
01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:34.999
of adults performing activities,
uh, ordinary activities.
01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:43.000
[music] And we found, surprisingly,
01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:54.999
that infants were able to
detect a change in activity,
01:05:55.000 --> 01:05:59.999
but not a change in person at five months.
So, this told us, we thought,
01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:04.999
that the activities were so interesting,
they were overwhelming their
01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.999
attention. Not that they could not detect
a person\'s face when they were engaged
01:06:10.000 --> 01:06:14.999
in an activity, it\'s just that their attention
doesn\'t go there. So, uh, we tested
01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:19.999
this out by showing a frozen image
of the person\'s face engaged in the
01:06:20.000 --> 01:06:24.999
activity - so, brushing their hair, um,
without any movement - a frozen image.
01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:29.999
And indeed, in that condition, infants were
able to detect a change in the face of the
01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:34.999
persons. The general, um, take-home message
01:06:35.000 --> 01:06:39.999
is that infants are very engaged
by action and activities.
01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:44.999
And from a very young age, their
attending to how, um, actions,
01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:49.999
what actions look like and how objects
are used in the context of activities.
01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:54.999
And we also examined this question by
asking if infants could detect, um,
01:06:55.000 --> 01:06:59.999
the correct versus the incorrect use of
01:07:00.000 --> 01:07:04.999
common objects that they\'ve seen.
01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:09.999
[music] They look a lot
01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:14.999
to that image because it\'s surprising to them. So we
think they\'re paying attention to how objects are used
01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:19.999
in the context of actions. Even at three and a half
months, we\'ve shown that infants can do the same
01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:25.000
thing if you first familiarize them
with the correct use of an object.
01:08:30.000 --> 01:08:38.000
[music]
01:09:40.000 --> 01:09:48.000
[music]
01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:54.999
The newborn infant spends most of his time
sleeping. What sort of slumber is it?
01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:59.999
What is its purpose? Research into these
questions has revealed significant
01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.999
differences between the infant\'s sleep and the
adult\'s, especially in phases of active sleep
01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:09.999
where brain functions are greatly engaged.
The cerebral activity
01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:15.000
might reflect the work of
assimilating the day\'s experiences.
01:10:50.000 --> 01:10:54.999
During these long periods of active
sleep, one can observe the face of
01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:59.999
the newborn going through the
fundamental emotions we all share.
01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:04.999
Joy, suffering, anger, fear,
01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:09.999
disgust, surprise.
01:11:10.000 --> 01:11:18.000
[sil.] The very young infant\'s
01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:34.999
active sleep could thus reflect a confrontation
between behavior arising from instinct -
01:12:35.000 --> 01:12:39.999
behavior which is part of our genetic
heritage and behavior related to
01:12:40.000 --> 01:12:44.999
daily experience - as if it was
necessary for us occasionally
01:12:45.000 --> 01:12:49.999
to adjust our innate behavior
patterns to the reality of the
01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:58.000
world. How much of baby\'s cerebral function
01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:09.999
is innate? For centuries, scientists
could only imagine the brain
01:13:10.000 --> 01:13:14.999
inside the skull. Today we
can watch it in action.
01:13:15.000 --> 01:13:19.999
Totally painless, but
still used chiefly as a
01:13:20.000 --> 01:13:24.999
research tool, these techniques
have only recently been applied
01:13:25.000 --> 01:13:30.000
to the observation of the newborn\'s brain.
01:13:55.000 --> 01:13:59.999
The subject of this experiment is language.
For almost 50 years,
01:14:00.000 --> 01:14:04.999
scientists have been debating the degree to which
the infant brain is organized at birth. Is it a
01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:09.999
loose network which will gradually take
on more complexity as the baby grows?
01:14:10.000 --> 01:14:14.999
Or is the complex structure hard-wired
from the beginning? Researchers read
01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:19.999
a story to little Laura Lynn who is just
12 weeks old. The goal is to determine
01:14:20.000 --> 01:14:28.000
which parts of her brain will be solicitated by the
listening experience. Children have the neurological
01:15:20.000 --> 01:15:24.999
capacity for language, as soon as
they\'re conceived, as soon as the fetus
01:15:25.000 --> 01:15:29.999
is formed. But that, this is a
very general kind of capacity,
01:15:30.000 --> 01:15:34.999
that it\'s not specific to language,
so that a great deal of language,
01:15:35.000 --> 01:15:39.999
in fact, has to be learned. However, the
innate capacity they have for language
01:15:40.000 --> 01:15:44.999
begins to exercise itself very,
very, uh, early in development, so
01:15:45.000 --> 01:15:49.999
there\'s evidence that even before
they\'re born, even as fetuses,
01:15:50.000 --> 01:15:54.999
children are starting to, uh, establish
the foundations for language.
01:15:55.000 --> 01:15:59.999
And so when they are born, they\'re tuning in
to the language that they hear around them.
01:16:00.000 --> 01:16:04.999
In other words, language learning doesn\'t start
after they\'re born, it starts before they\'re born.
01:16:05.000 --> 01:16:09.999
But it\'s not something that\'s innate.
It\'s the capacity that\'s innate.
01:16:10.000 --> 01:16:18.000
[sil.]
01:16:25.000 --> 01:16:29.999
Proof of an innate neurological capacity
for language opens new horizons
01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:34.999
for research. By what mechanisms
is language acquired?
01:16:35.000 --> 01:16:39.999
Which of those mechanisms are there
right at birth? How much does baby
01:16:40.000 --> 01:16:44.999
bring to the process? How much
does his environment contribute?
01:16:45.000 --> 01:16:49.999
Thanks to studies carried out with babies
growing up in bilingual environments,
01:16:50.000 --> 01:16:54.999
a few of these questions have been
answered. Researchers even, um, several
01:16:55.000 --> 01:16:59.999
years ago, believed that when
children who are exposed to
01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:04.999
two languages, from birth, um, they actually treat
these two languages as if they\'re one language.
01:17:05.000 --> 01:17:09.999
So they, in a sense, confuse the two, they
treat the sounds of the two languages as
01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:14.999
if they\'re part of one language. They treat
the words from the two languages as if
01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:19.999
they\'re part of a single language. But we now
know that this is, uh, probably not true.
01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:24.999
That even from, uh, birth and
prior to birth, children
01:17:25.000 --> 01:17:29.999
have already begun to realize in some sense,
not consciously, but in an implicit way,
01:17:30.000 --> 01:17:34.999
that there are, are two languages
that they\'re learning.
01:17:35.000 --> 01:17:43.000
[music] A baby, for example, hearing,
01:17:50.000 --> 01:17:54.999
whose mother only spoke English before they were
born, will, um, be able to discriminate English from
01:17:55.000 --> 01:17:59.999
French. Or, um, even,
um, Italian from Dutch
01:18:00.000 --> 01:18:04.999
because these are languages whose
rhythmic structures are very different.
01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:09.999
And that seems to be something that newborns can
do. There is some evidence that, as babies,
01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:14.999
um, gain exposure and, and listen to
their native language, that they can
01:18:15.000 --> 01:18:19.999
begin to make finer discrimination so they can
tell the difference between their native language
01:18:20.000 --> 01:18:24.999
and another language from the same rhythmic
class. So, for example, English and Dutch are
01:18:25.000 --> 01:18:29.999
rhythmically similar languages. So,
a baby learning English can, um,
01:18:30.000 --> 01:18:34.999
as, by four months of age or five months of age,
can tell the difference between English and Dutch.
01:18:35.000 --> 01:18:39.999
[sil.] When you look at bilingual
01:18:40.000 --> 01:18:44.999
children, what you find is that they
will babble differently depending on
01:18:45.000 --> 01:18:49.999
on who they\'re with. So, uh, in your own
research, we\'ve looked at children who are,
01:18:50.000 --> 01:18:54.999
uh, learning English from one parent and
French from the other parent and when you,
01:18:55.000 --> 01:18:59.999
when you analyze their babbling when they\'re with the
English-speaking parent, you see that they actually babble
01:19:00.000 --> 01:19:04.999
like an English-speaking child. If you look at them or listen to
them when they\'re babbling with their French-speaking parent,
01:19:05.000 --> 01:19:09.999
they actually sound like a
French-speaking child who\'s babbling.
01:19:10.000 --> 01:19:14.999
So already at this early stage, there\'s evidence
that they, uh, know in some sense, that there\'s, uh,
01:19:15.000 --> 01:19:19.999
two different languages in their
01:19:20.000 --> 01:19:25.000
environment.
01:19:35.000 --> 01:19:39.999
One of the skills the baby has
to acquire is the ability
01:19:40.000 --> 01:19:44.999
to make out single distinct words
in an uninterrupted flow of
01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:49.999
speech. To see whether an eight month
old infant was capable of doing this,
01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:54.999
he was read a story in which the
same word was repeated several
01:19:55.000 --> 01:20:03.000
times. When the baby looks at the
light, it triggers the recording.
01:20:05.000 --> 01:20:09.999
As long as he keeps looking at it, the story
continues. This indicates his attention span.
01:20:10.000 --> 01:20:14.999
After the story\'s over, he was played
a tape of the word being repeated
01:20:15.000 --> 01:20:19.999
and another word.
01:20:20.000 --> 01:20:24.999
[sil.]
01:20:25.000 --> 01:20:29.999
He is clearly more attentive to
the word he has already heard
01:20:30.000 --> 01:20:34.999
which demonstrates his ability to isolate
one word from a stream of speech.
01:20:35.000 --> 01:20:39.999
For a long time, the idea was that when
children started to learn words, that
01:20:40.000 --> 01:20:44.999
they learned a concept or a meaning
and then they attached a label to it.
01:20:45.000 --> 01:20:49.999
But now what we\'re learning is that
infants learn a lot about the sound
01:20:50.000 --> 01:20:54.999
of their language and
isolate word forms, uh,
01:20:55.000 --> 01:20:59.999
also before they can, have
the meaning to attach to it.
01:21:00.000 --> 01:21:08.000
[sil.] Stations for language
01:21:30.000 --> 01:21:34.999
learning are, uh, are really being
established at the same time that a lot of
01:21:35.000 --> 01:21:39.999
other cognitive and affective emotional
systems are being, uh, developed
01:21:40.000 --> 01:21:44.999
in the child. So, for the
child, language is not simply
01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:49.999
a system of symbols or codes
for communication. It\'s a, uh,
01:21:50.000 --> 01:21:54.999
a system that\'s also very, very intimately
associated with their parents, with
01:21:55.000 --> 01:21:59.999
their emotions with, uh,
expressing themselves.
01:22:00.000 --> 01:22:04.999
So, I think that there probably
is a very close link between
01:22:05.000 --> 01:22:09.999
language and languages and
children\'s emotional, uh, state and
01:22:10.000 --> 01:22:15.000
emotional feelings and how
they think of themselves.
01:22:40.000 --> 01:22:48.000
[music] When a baby\'s born, it has all
the neurons, individual nerve cells,
01:23:10.000 --> 01:23:14.999
that are in part of the brain. The
baby has all of those. Will never
01:23:15.000 --> 01:23:19.999
have any more. But they\'re not
connected to each other and
01:23:20.000 --> 01:23:24.999
wisdom, intelligence and
humor and all that arises
01:23:25.000 --> 01:23:29.999
from how the cells are
connected to each other
01:23:30.000 --> 01:23:34.999
which happens over the course of life, well
into the teenage years. Well into the teenage
01:23:35.000 --> 01:23:39.999
years and we now know it can even
happen beyond the teenage years.
01:23:40.000 --> 01:23:44.999
So, no the baby\'s not as smart as they\'ll
ever be. On the contrary, the baby is, uh,
01:23:45.000 --> 01:23:49.999
uh, not very smart at all in the sense
that they don\'t know many things,
01:23:50.000 --> 01:23:54.999
but they are smart in the sense
that they are exquisite learners.
01:23:55.000 --> 01:23:59.999
They can learn rapidly, so they can
pickup new information very quickly.
01:24:00.000 --> 01:24:04.999
And the new information they pick up helps
organize the brain that is being built.
01:24:05.000 --> 01:24:13.000
[music]
01:25:35.000 --> 01:25:40.000
[music]
Distributor: Icarus Films
Length: 43 minutes
Date: 2005
Genre: Expository
Language: English; French / English subtitles
Grade: 9-12, College, Adult
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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