Institut Marquès Research on Foetal Hearing and the Effect of Music on Early Life Presented at the Ig Nobel
BARCELONA, Spain, April 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
For years, Institut Marquès, centre of international standing in Gynaecology and Assisted Reproduction, has been carrying out cutting-edge research into the effects of music on the beginning of life, during embryonic and foetal development.
(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/676280/Babypod.jpg )
(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/676281/Ig_Nobel_ceremony.jpg )
Last September its Director, Dr. Marisa López-Teijón, received the Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine in the field of Obstetrics at Harvard University for the discovery of foetal hearing. The objective of the Ig Nobel is for prestigious scientists from all over the world to present their research to the public in a fun and entertaining way.
As part of the European Ig Nobel Tour, Dr. López-Teijón and Dr. Álex Garcia-Faura, Scientific Director of the Institut Marquès, presented their work at universities in Sweden and Denmark, refuting one of the most widely accepted myths among pregnant women: "Thanks to the creation of a vaginal loudspeaker, Babypod, we have shown that foetuses can hear from the 16th week onwards when they measure 11 centimetres -- only if the sound reaches them directly from the vagina," explained Dr. Marisa López-Teijón. "Foetuses can barely hear the noise from outside. So we can say that the myth of talking to babies through pregnant women's bellies is a thing of the past."
Chief researcher of the study, Dra. López-Teijón explained: "We also have improved in vitro fertilization by applying musical vibrations in the incubators of our assisted reproduction clinics."
One of the most popular events in the Ig Nobel Tour this year took place in the Aarhus University of Copenhagen, with near 800 people attending in the auditorium. Hundreds of other people followed it by streaming from one of the 50 points enabled for the connection.
Communication with the foetus is one of the aspects that aroused most interest: "By inserting a loudspeaker into the vagina of thousands of patients, for the first time we have managed to communicate with the foetus. Babypod has allowed us to discover that the foetus responds in the same way as a baby, with speech and movement. Thousands of women are already using it to communicate with their babies during pregnancy," said the Scientific Director of the Institut Marquès in his speech.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjkTA9deri0&feature=youtu.be
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