Sleeping Babies May Learn Simple Things

Newborn babies can learn simple things even while asleep, new research suggests. The study included 26 babies who were 1 or 2 days old. The experiment took place while they were sleeping. They were videotaped and hooked to a machine to record their brain activity. Researchers played a tone. Then a machine blew a faint puff of air at each baby’s eyelids. This made the babies squeeze their lids together tighter. The tone and puff were repeated. But on the 10th time the tone was played without the puff. This sequence was repeated over and over. After 20 minutes of this, most of the babies squeezed their eyes at the tone, even when there was no puff. The machine also showed changes in brain wave activity after the tone was played. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the study online. United Press International wrote about it May 17.