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r fourth day of life. babies whose mothers did not eat anise during pregnancy showed a reaction that translated roughly as amp。re out in the world. in one experiment, a group of pregnant women was asked to drink a lot of carrot juice during their third trimester of pregnancy, while another group of pregnant women drank only water. six months later, the womenamp。 taste buds are fully developed, and its olfactory receptors, which allow it to smell, are functioning. the flavors of the food a pregnant woman eats find their way into the amniotic fluid, which is continuously swallowed by the fetus. babies seem to remember and prefer these tastes once theyamp。s also tastes and smells. by seven months of gestation, the fetusamp。s not just sounds that fetuses are learning about in utero. itamp。s language, which may further endear the baby to the mother, and which may give the baby a head start in the critical task of learning how to understand and speak its native language. but itamp。s survival. from the moment of birth, the baby responds most to the voice of the person who is most likely to care for it its mother. it even makes its cries sound like the motheramp。s native language. french babies cry on a rising note while german babies end on a falling note, imitating the melodic contours of those languages. now why would this kind of fetal learning be useful? it may have evolved to aid the babyamp。ll be born into. a study published last year found that from birth, from the moment of birth, babies cry in the accent of their motheramp。s spoken in the world that theyamp。 while they were pregnant, their newborn babies recognized that passage when they hear it outside the womb. my favorite experiment of this kind is the one that showed that the babies of women who watched a certain soap opera every day during pregnancy recognized the theme song of that show once they were born. so fetuses are even learning about the particular language thatamp。the cat in the hatamp。 amp。s voice. babies quickly show their preference by choosing the first one. scientists also take advantage of the fact that babies will slow down their sucking when something interests them and resume their fast sucking when they get bored. this is how researchers discovered that, after women repeatedly read aloud a section of dr. seussamp。s voice on a pair of headphones, and if it sucks on the other nipple, it hears a recording of a female strangeramp。re really good at is sucking. researchers take advantage of this fact by rigging up two rubber nipples, so that if a baby sucks on one, it hears a recording of its motheramp。t do much, but one thing theyamp。s. how can we know this? newborn babies canamp。s born, it recognizes her voice and it prefers listening to her voice over anyone elseamp。s own voice reverberates through her body, reaching the fetus much more readily. and because the fetus is with her all the