Cortical Responses to Mother's Voice in Comparison with Unfamiliar Voice in the First Trimester of Life: A fNIRS Study.

Introduction  The use of functional near-infrared light spectroscopy (fNIRS) may be applied to study cortical responses in children and could offer insight into auditory and speech perception during the early stages of life. Some literature suggests that babies are already able to identify familiar voices at birth, and fNIRS is a non-invasive technique that can be used to study this population. Objective  To characterize the cortical responses of infants during their first trimester of life to infant-directed speech using near-infrared light spectroscopy and to verify whether there is a difference in responses when infant-directed speech is performed by their mother compared with an unknown person. Methods  Twenty-three children between 0 and 3 months, healthy, without risk indicators for hearing loss, and with results considered normal in the audiological evaluation were tested with near-infrared spectroscopy using infant-directed speech as an auditory stimulus produced by their own mother and by an unknown source. Results  Bilateral cortical activation was observed. The responses were present in the temporal, frontal, and parietal regions. Regarding the familiarity aspect, no significant difference was observed for the mother's voice compared with an unknown voice. Conclusion  Infant-directed speech has prosodic characteristics capable of activating several cortical regions in the infant's first trimester of life, especially the temporal region. The familiarity effect needs to be better defined for this type of stimulus during this period.