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Glucose enhances newborn memory for spoken words
Author(s) -
Horne Pamela,
Barr Ronald G.,
Valiante Grace,
Zelazo Philip R.,
Young Simon N.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.20172
Subject(s) - habituation , word (group theory) , psychology , audiology , spoken word , developmental psychology , linguistics , medicine , neuroscience , philosophy , poetry
The effect of a 2 g/kg glucose feed was compared with a water feed on retention of a spoken word in 2–4 days old infants in a between group randomized trial. Infants heard a word in 30‐s trials until they demonstrated orientation (head turns towards the sound) and habituation. After a 100 s delay, infants who received glucose turned toward the word less often than infants receiving water (means 31.8 vs. 57.7%, t = 2.8, p < 0.01) implying that they remembered the word better. There were no differences between groups in measures of attention to or rate of learning of the word. Only infants who subsequently oriented towards a different word, indicating that they remained alert, were used in the data analysis. The results suggest that glucose enhanced memory for a spoken word in neonates. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 48: 574–582, 2006.