| To test the theory, Cheour and their colleagues studied 45 newborn babies in the first days of their lives. They exposed all the infants to an hour of Finnish vowel sounds--- one / that sounds like oo, another like ee and a third boundary vowel peculiar to Finnish and similar languages / that sounds like something in between. EEG （脑电图） recording of the infants brains before and after the session showed / that the newborns could not distinguish the sounds.
When tested in the morning, and again in the evening, the babies / whod heard the tricky boundary vowels all night / showed brainwave activity indicating /that they could now recognize this sound. They could identify the sound even / when its pitch was changed, while none of the other babies could pick up the boundary vowel at all.
Cheour doesnt know / how babies accomplish this nighttime learning, but she suspects /that the special ability might indicate / that unlike adults, babies dont turn off their cerebral cortex （大脑皮层） /while they sleep. The skill probably fades in the course of the first years of life, she adds---so forget the idea / that you can pick up the tricky French vowels as an adult just by slipping a language tape under your pillow. But / while it may not help grown-ups, Cheour is hoping to use the sleeping hours to give remedial help to babies / who are genetically at risk of language disorders.
1. Babies can learn language even in their sleep.
a. Right
b. Wrong
c. Not mentioned