NIH Radio
Infants Capable of Learning While Asleep – 5
Narrator: This is NIH Health Matters. I’m Joe Balintfy. New research shows infants can learn while they’re sleeping. Dr. William Fifer at Columbia University in New York says this research may have implications for identifying developmental issues in infants.
Fifer: We don’t have very good tools right now to really quantify how well the brain is developing right after birth. And this provides a way to ask questions of babies while they are asleep, in a state that they are spending most of their time in, in fact, and one in where we can ask these questions both rapidly and non-invasively.
Narrator: He hopes this research may also have applications for patients in comas. For details on this research visit nichd.nih.gov. Health Matters is produced by the National Institutes of Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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