Daniel J. Levitin

Do we know that? Yeah, we do. By the age of 20 weeks, the auditory system of the developing fetus is fully functional. They hear through amniotic fluid, which is somewhat like for us to listen underwater. If you're at a pool and there's music blasting, you'll notice you hear mostly the low frequencies, the notes, the percussion.

The infant brain is wiring itself up to the sounds that it heard in the womb. Suppose you could say it's a womb with a view. Do you use that in every interview? Are we special? No, you're special. Thank you. It's funny. They're wearing themselves up to the bass notes and to the rhythms.

The infant brain is wiring itself up to the sounds that it heard in the womb. Suppose you could say it's a womb with a view. Do you use that in every interview? Are we special? No, you're special. Thank you. It's funny. They're wearing themselves up to the bass notes and to the rhythms.

The infant brain is wiring itself up to the sounds that it heard in the womb. Suppose you could say it's a womb with a view. Do you use that in every interview? Are we special? No, you're special. Thank you. It's funny. They're wearing themselves up to the bass notes and to the rhythms.

And there was a very clever experiment done by Alexandra Lamont in England many years ago where she had expectant mothers play music to their unborn children. And then a year later, she came back. and played tracks from those same albums to the now one-year-olds, a year and three months later, let's say. And some of the tracks she played were ones they had heard.

And there was a very clever experiment done by Alexandra Lamont in England many years ago where she had expectant mothers play music to their unborn children. And then a year later, she came back. and played tracks from those same albums to the now one-year-olds, a year and three months later, let's say. And some of the tracks she played were ones they had heard.

And there was a very clever experiment done by Alexandra Lamont in England many years ago where she had expectant mothers play music to their unborn children. And then a year later, she came back. and played tracks from those same albums to the now one-year-olds, a year and three months later, let's say. And some of the tracks she played were ones they had heard.

Some of them were by the same artists that they hadn't heard. And the one-year-olds showed a marked preference for the music they had heard in the womb and not heard since. Really? That's interesting.

Some of them were by the same artists that they hadn't heard. And the one-year-olds showed a marked preference for the music they had heard in the womb and not heard since. Really? That's interesting.

Some of them were by the same artists that they hadn't heard. And the one-year-olds showed a marked preference for the music they had heard in the womb and not heard since. Really? That's interesting.

There's a phrase in developmental psychology called critical period, and that refers to a kind of a hard stop. If you don't learn something by a certain point, you'll never learn it. And language and music are not like that. They're more like a sensitive period. They're a statistical distribution, meaning that most people

There's a phrase in developmental psychology called critical period, and that refers to a kind of a hard stop. If you don't learn something by a certain point, you'll never learn it. And language and music are not like that. They're more like a sensitive period. They're a statistical distribution, meaning that most people

There's a phrase in developmental psychology called critical period, and that refers to a kind of a hard stop. If you don't learn something by a certain point, you'll never learn it. And language and music are not like that. They're more like a sensitive period. They're a statistical distribution, meaning that most people

have to learn some kind of language before a certain age or they never learn to speak. There have been these unfortunate, tragic events where a baby was locked in a closet. Yeah, or feral children. Yeah, exactly right. And if you don't learn to speak before, I mean, there are arguments about what age it is, but let's say it's 8 to 10. And you're finally rescued and they try to teach you language.

have to learn some kind of language before a certain age or they never learn to speak. There have been these unfortunate, tragic events where a baby was locked in a closet. Yeah, or feral children. Yeah, exactly right. And if you don't learn to speak before, I mean, there are arguments about what age it is, but let's say it's 8 to 10. And you're finally rescued and they try to teach you language.

have to learn some kind of language before a certain age or they never learn to speak. There have been these unfortunate, tragic events where a baby was locked in a closet. Yeah, or feral children. Yeah, exactly right. And if you don't learn to speak before, I mean, there are arguments about what age it is, but let's say it's 8 to 10. And you're finally rescued and they try to teach you language.

That window has closed. You'll never learn to speak in complete sentences. I'm not a developmental psychologist. It might be six to ten, but it's a hard stop. But we see it in our own lives in a more gentle way.

That window has closed. You'll never learn to speak in complete sentences. I'm not a developmental psychologist. It might be six to ten, but it's a hard stop. But we see it in our own lives in a more gentle way.

That window has closed. You'll never learn to speak in complete sentences. I'm not a developmental psychologist. It might be six to ten, but it's a hard stop. But we see it in our own lives in a more gentle way.

which is that if you try to learn a foreign language before the age of, say, 14, give or take a couple of years, you might very well learn to speak it without an accent and to become fluent just by osmosis, just by hearing it spoken in the home. We have lots of cases of bilinguals, trilinguals, multilingual kids who grew up