UW researchers found that by listening to various social interactions and exaggerated use of "parentese," infants learn to program the motor movements needed to speak their native language and pay less attention to nonnative sounds. To make the discovery, infants sat in a brain scanner that measures brain activation through a non-invasive technique called magnetoencephalography as seen here.

Credit: Patricia Kuhl, Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, University of Washington

Researchers used a noninvasive technique called magnetoencephalography to measure the point at which infants begin to learn and distinguish the sounds of the predominant language they hear around them since birth. It's at this point, researchers say, that infants begin to mentally practice speaking, long before their first words.

Credit: Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, University of Washington