Attracting Abundance
- 123 -
The Law
Belief - XXXV
I have been reading extensively on research done on the effect of parenting and other stimuli on the human fetus and infant, especially with an intention to understand the influence of epigenetics on the character of life. In case, the readers of this post are interested to delve deeper in to this subject, here are a few books:
- The Secret Life of the Unborn Child: How You Can Prepare Your Baby for a Happy, Healthy Life by Dr. Thomas Verny, M.D. and John Kelly.
- Mind of Your New Born Baby by David B Chamberlain, Ph.D.
- Life in the Womb: The Origin of Health and Disease by Peter W Nathanielsz, Ph.D., M.D. Sc.D.
- How Life Begins: The Science of Life in the Womb by Christopher Vaughan
- Pre-parenting: Nurturing your Child from Conception by Dr. Thomas Verny, M.D.
Brief excerpts from these books can be found here. Besides these books, there is a very large number of research papers which had to be pursued and understood.
I would like to warn the readers that the findings of these scientists and authors have not gone well with the traditionalist who are adamant on their stand of genetic determinism. These works have torn our long standing belief to shreds.
It was believed that the brain does not become functional or "aware" till after birth. It was postulated that some event during the birth process triggers, along with other changes required for life outside womb, activity in the central nervous system and hence memory begins. Hence it was concluded that within the womb the fetus is not aware of any emotions, feelings and it has no memory. It is now revealed that the fetal and infant nervous system has significant sensory and learning capabilities and have the ability to retain that learning. This is not to suggest that memory when it begins to function is capable of all abilities of an adult's memory. Rather memory, at its developmental origin in the prenatal period probably functions in some rudimentary form and develops, both quantitatively and qualitatively, as the individual matures. Let us look at this a little more deeply.
The studies on fetal learning and memory are based on the scientific paradigms of conditioning and habituation of the fetus when exposed to external stimuli. the start of these experiments dates back to the 1930s. It appears that the first well constructed experimental study was done in 1948 by Spelt (Spelt DK. The conditioning of the foetus in utero. J Exp Psychol 1948;38:338-46). He generated an auditory signal composing of a vibration and loud noise. He reported that the fetus responded (moved) to the vibration alone in the last two months of the gestation period. In a later study by Feihoo et al in 1981 (Feihoo J. Ut conscientia Noscatue. Cahier de Soprologie 1975;13:14-20, Feihoo J. Le foetus Pierre et le loup ...ou une approche originale de l'audition prenatale humanine. In: Herbinet E. Busnell M.C. editors L'aube des sens. Paris: Stock, 1981) it was revealed that after about 24 exposures of the fetus to a musical sound in the last weeks of pregnancy, the fetus started moving and when played to the new-born, these babies topped crying, opened their eyes and exhibited fewer convulsive movements.
One of the most successful scientific paradigms used to explore newborn memory and perceptual abilities has been that of habituation. Habituation is the decrement in response to stimuli following repeated exposure to the same stimuli. the stimuli, that has been used for fetuses have been auditory in nature and the response has been defined by the movement of the fetus and in some cases with the heart rate of the fetus inside the womb. In one such experiment by Hepper et al in 1984 (Hepper PG. Shadidullah S. Habituation in normal and Down Syndrome fetuses. Quart J Exp Psychol 1992;44:305-17) using movement as the response, fetuses at 36 weeks were found to habituate to a 250 Hz tone; to respond again to a 500 Hz tone and then get habituated to the new tone after repeated exposures; finally on re-exposure to 250 Hz, the fetuses started to respond again indicating their dis-habituation to the 250 Hz tone during the period they were being exposed to 500 Hz tone but then got re-habituated to 250 Hz tone much quicker that the first time.
The earliest onset of habituation to auditory signals has been demonstrated after 22 weeks of getsation age of the fetus and appears to occur earlier in females than in male fetuses which corresponds with the onset of fetal auditory ability. (Leader LR, Baille P, Martin B, Vermeulen E. The assessment and significance of habituation in normal and high risk pregnancies. J Perinatalogy 1991;11:25-9, Hepper PG, Shahdullah S. Development of Fetal Hearin. Arch Dis Childhood 1994; 71:F81-F870). It is quite possible that habituation is present earlier to this; as the fetus does not have auditory abilities before 22 weeks, it is unable to respond to sound prior to this age.
Here are three extracts from an article on exposure learning of fetuses:
"One study looked at the ability of the fetus to learn a TV theme tune, "Neighbours", frequently heard by the mother during her pregnancy (Hepper PG. Foetal "soap" addiction. Lancet 1988; 11th June:1347-8, Hepper PG. (1991) an examination of fetal learning before and after birth. Irish J Psychol 1991;12:95-107). In the first experiment newborn infants (2-4 days of age) of mothers who watched "Neighbours" during pregnancy (and heard the theme tune) became alert stopped moving and their heart rate decreased (orienting) upon hearing the tune. These same individuals showed no such reaction to other, unfamiliar tunes. Newborns of mothers who did not watch the TV programme during pregnancy showed no reaction to the tune. There was no exposure to the TV tune after birth, the last exposure occurring before birth. Hence individuals must have learned the information about the tune prenatally and retained it 2-4 days until tested postnatally."
"A second experiment examined when learning and memory could first be evidenced before birth. Individuals were observed using ultrasound and their response to the theme tune noted. Individuals exposed to the theme tune showed a significant increase in movements at 37 weeks of gestation but not at 30 weeks of gestation. Fetuses not previously exposed to the tune showed no response at either age. This suggests that the ability to recognise familiar stimuli commences between 30 and 37 weeks of gestation."
"A third experiment looked at the duration of this memory by examining the response of individuals, prenatally exposed to the tune, 21 days after birth. Whilst the previous study showed newborns at 2-4 days of age "recognized" the tune there was no response when individuals were tested at 21 days of age. This may indicate that any recognition of memory is lost by 21 day of age in the absence of any postnatal exposure."
Despite making inroads into the development of fetal memory much remains unanswered. Other studies have confirmed the ability of the fetus to learn familiar auditory stimuli in fetus (Wilkin PE. Prenatal and postnatal responses to music and sound stimuli. In: Blum T, editor. Prenatal perception learning and bonding. Berlin. Leonardo, 1993, Damstra-Wijmenga SMI. Fetal soap addiction. Lancet 1988; July 23:223).
However the function of fetal memory is still not understood. The various assumptions on this issue are as follows:
- Fetal memory has no function. It simply develops at a certain age of gestation as a natural phenomena.
- It may serve a "practice function". there is substantive evidence that the fetus learns many behaviors before they are needed viz. eye movement, fetal breathing, the movements of which are noticed at 10-11 weeks of gestation. It is the opinion of scientists belonging to this school of thought that the fetus learns, practises and memorises some behaviors well before they are needed so that they are competent enough when these functions are needed. The same pattern may even extend to psychological functions.
- It may be necessary for recognizing the mother and finding security in closeness to her. there is substantive evidence that the fetus learns the nuances of mother's speech prenetally and prefers it's mother's voice to other female voices after birth (DeCasper AJ, Fifer WP. Of human bondage: Newborns prefer their mothers' voices. Science 1980;208:1174-6, Fifer TM, Moon C. Psychobiology of newborn auditory preferences. Seminars in Perinatology. 1989;13:430-3, Hepper PG, Scott D, Shahdullah S. Newborn and fetal response to maternal voice. J Reproduct Infant Psychol. 1993;11:147-53, DeCasper AJ, Spence MJ. Prenatal maternal speech influences newborns' perception of speech sound. Infant Behav Devel 1986;9:133-50, Hepper PG, Scott D, Shahdullah S. Newborn and fetal response to maternal voice. J Reproduct Infant Psychol 1993;11:147-53). The mother's voice becomes a familiar auditory stimulus for the new-born baby to respond to and probably becomes the starting point of attachment to the mother. It is also suggested that the smell of mother is learnt at prenatal stage itself and becomes an additional familiar stimulus for the new-born baby. (Porter RH. Mutual mother-infant recognition in humans. In: Hepper PG, editor Kin recognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1991).
- Fetal memory may be important for establishment of breast feeding.. the mother's diet gives flavor to both the amniotic fluid and her breast milk. (Mennella JA, Beauchamp GK. Maternal diet alters the sensory qualities of human milk and the nursling's behavior. Pediatrics 1991;88:737-744, Mennella JA, Beauchamp GK. The transfer of alcohol to human milk: effects on flavor and the infant's behavior. New Engl J Med 1991;325:981-85, Hepper PG. Adaptive fetal learning: prenatal exposure to garlic affects postnatal preference. Animal Behav 1988;36:935-6). (Note: Amniotic fluid is the protective liquid contained in the amniotic sac of a pregnant female. It is commonly called pregnant woman's water). The fetus learns about the flavor of the amniotic water at the gestation period of about 12 weeks when it begins to swallow this fluid. When the mother starts its first breast feeding, the new-born baby recognises the secretion from mother's breasts as familiar due to the similarity of taste with the amniotic fluid. Recent evidence suggests that the fetus can learn tastes experienced prenatally and through such learning acquire a preference for these tastes. Mothers who change their diets after the birth of a baby mat find it difficult to establish breastfeeding.
- It may be necessary for acquisition of language. Fetus can learn its mother's voice. The fetus is able to hear inside the womb after its auditory ability is live around the gestation period of 22 weeks. (DeCasper AJ, Fifer WP. Of human bondage: Newborns prefer their mothers' voices. Science 1980;208:1174-6, Fifer TM, Moon C. Psychobiology of newborn auditory preferences. Seminars in Perinatology. 1989;13:430-3, Hepper PG, Scott D, Shahdullah S. Newborn and fetal response to maternal voice. J Reproduct Infant Psychol. 1993;11:147-53, DeCasper AJ, Spence MJ. Prenatal maternal speech influences newborns' perception of speech sound. Infant Behav Devel 1986;9:133-50, Hepper PG, Scott D, Shahdullah S. Newborn and fetal response to maternal voice. J Reproduct Infant Psychol 1993;11:147-53). The fetus is also able to differentiate between different speech sounds in the womb.(Lecanuet J-P, Granier-Deferre C, DeCasper AJ, Maugeais R, Andrieu A-J, Busnel M-C. Perception et discrimination foetale de stimuli langagiers, mise en evidence a partir de la reactivite cardiaque. Resultats preliminaries. C-R de l'Acad Sci Paris. Serie III 1987;305:161-64, Lecanuet J-P, Granier-Deferre C, Jacquet AY, Capponi I. Ledru L. Prenatal discrimination of male and female voice uttering the same sentence. Early Devel Parenting 1993;2:217-28, Shahdullah S, Hepper PG. Frequency discrimination by the fetus. Early Human Devel 1994;36:13-26). Newborns also seem to have preference for their mother's native language. It may be that experience of speech prenatally begins the process of acquiring language.
The function of the fetal memory may be any or a combination of the above or it may be something else. This area requires much work to be done.
Namaste
Till next time
Prabir
Attracting Abundance
- 123 -
The Law
Belief - XXXV
I have been reading extensively on research done on the effect of parenting and other stimuli on the human fetus and infant, especially with an intention to understand the influence of epigenetics on the character of life. In case, the readers of this post are interested to delve deeper in to this subject, here are a few books:
- The Secret Life of the Unborn Child: How You Can Prepare Your Baby for a Happy, Healthy Life by Dr. Thomas Verny, M.D. and John Kelly.
- Mind of Your New Born Baby by David B Chamberlain, Ph.D.
- Life in the Womb: The Origin of Health and Disease by Peter W Nathanielsz, Ph.D., M.D. Sc.D.
- How Life Begins: The Science of Life in the Womb by Christopher Vaughan
- Pre-parenting: Nurturing your Child from Conception by Dr. Thomas Verny, M.D.
Brief excerpts from these books can be found here. Besides these books, there is a very large number of research papers which had to be pursued and understood.
I would like to warn the readers that the findings of these scientists and authors have not gone well with the traditionalist who are adamant on their stand of genetic determinism. These works have torn our long standing belief to shreds.
It was believed that the brain does not become functional or "aware" till after birth. It was postulated that some event during the birth process triggers, along with other changes required for life outside womb, activity in the central nervous system and hence memory begins. Hence it was concluded that within the womb the fetus is not aware of any emotions, feelings and it has no memory. It is now revealed that the fetal and infant nervous system has significant sensory and learning capabilities and have the ability to retain that learning. This is not to suggest that memory when it begins to function is capable of all abilities of an adult's memory. Rather memory, at its developmental origin in the prenatal period probably functions in some rudimentary form and develops, both quantitatively and qualitatively, as the individual matures. Let us look at this a little more deeply.
The studies on fetal learning and memory are based on the scientific paradigms of conditioning and habituation of the fetus when exposed to external stimuli. the start of these experiments dates back to the 1930s. It appears that the first well constructed experimental study was done in 1948 by Spelt (Spelt DK. The conditioning of the foetus in utero. J Exp Psychol 1948;38:338-46). He generated an auditory signal composing of a vibration and loud noise. He reported that the fetus responded (moved) to the vibration alone in the last two months of the gestation period. In a later study by Feihoo et al in 1981 (Feihoo J. Ut conscientia Noscatue. Cahier de Soprologie 1975;13:14-20, Feihoo J. Le foetus Pierre et le loup ...ou une approche originale de l'audition prenatale humanine. In: Herbinet E. Busnell M.C. editors L'aube des sens. Paris: Stock, 1981) it was revealed that after about 24 exposures of the fetus to a musical sound in the last weeks of pregnancy, the fetus started moving and when played to the new-born, these babies topped crying, opened their eyes and exhibited fewer convulsive movements.
One of the most successful scientific paradigms used to explore newborn memory and perceptual abilities has been that of habituation. Habituation is the decrement in response to stimuli following repeated exposure to the same stimuli. the stimuli, that has been used for fetuses have been auditory in nature and the response has been defined by the movement of the fetus and in some cases with the heart rate of the fetus inside the womb. In one such experiment by Hepper et al in 1984 (Hepper PG. Shadidullah S. Habituation in normal and Down Syndrome fetuses. Quart J Exp Psychol 1992;44:305-17) using movement as the response, fetuses at 36 weeks were found to habituate to a 250 Hz tone; to respond again to a 500 Hz tone and then get habituated to the new tone after repeated exposures; finally on re-exposure to 250 Hz, the fetuses started to respond again indicating their dis-habituation to the 250 Hz tone during the period they were being exposed to 500 Hz tone but then got re-habituated to 250 Hz tone much quicker that the first time.
The earliest onset of habituation to auditory signals has been demonstrated after 22 weeks of getsation age of the fetus and appears to occur earlier in females than in male fetuses which corresponds with the onset of fetal auditory ability. (Leader LR, Baille P, Martin B, Vermeulen E. The assessment and significance of habituation in normal and high risk pregnancies. J Perinatalogy 1991;11:25-9, Hepper PG, Shahdullah S. Development of Fetal Hearin. Arch Dis Childhood 1994; 71:F81-F870). It is quite possible that habituation is present earlier to this; as the fetus does not have auditory abilities before 22 weeks, it is unable to respond to sound prior to this age.
Here are three extracts from an article on exposure learning of fetuses:
"One study looked at the ability of the fetus to learn a TV theme tune, "Neighbours", frequently heard by the mother during her pregnancy (Hepper PG. Foetal "soap" addiction. Lancet 1988; 11th June:1347-8, Hepper PG. (1991) an examination of fetal learning before and after birth. Irish J Psychol 1991;12:95-107). In the first experiment newborn infants (2-4 days of age) of mothers who watched "Neighbours" during pregnancy (and heard the theme tune) became alert stopped moving and their heart rate decreased (orienting) upon hearing the tune. These same individuals showed no such reaction to other, unfamiliar tunes. Newborns of mothers who did not watch the TV programme during pregnancy showed no reaction to the tune. There was no exposure to the TV tune after birth, the last exposure occurring before birth. Hence individuals must have learned the information about the tune prenatally and retained it 2-4 days until tested postnatally."
"A second experiment examined when learning and memory could first be evidenced before birth. Individuals were observed using ultrasound and their response to the theme tune noted. Individuals exposed to the theme tune showed a significant increase in movements at 37 weeks of gestation but not at 30 weeks of gestation. Fetuses not previously exposed to the tune showed no response at either age. This suggests that the ability to recognise familiar stimuli commences between 30 and 37 weeks of gestation."
"A third experiment looked at the duration of this memory by examining the response of individuals, prenatally exposed to the tune, 21 days after birth. Whilst the previous study showed newborns at 2-4 days of age "recognized" the tune there was no response when individuals were tested at 21 days of age. This may indicate that any recognition of memory is lost by 21 day of age in the absence of any postnatal exposure."
Despite making inroads into the development of fetal memory much remains unanswered. Other studies have confirmed the ability of the fetus to learn familiar auditory stimuli in fetus (Wilkin PE. Prenatal and postnatal responses to music and sound stimuli. In: Blum T, editor. Prenatal perception learning and bonding. Berlin. Leonardo, 1993, Damstra-Wijmenga SMI. Fetal soap addiction. Lancet 1988; July 23:223).
However the function of fetal memory is still not understood. The various assumptions on this issue are as follows:
- Fetal memory has no function. It simply develops at a certain age of gestation as a natural phenomena.
- It may serve a "practice function". there is substantive evidence that the fetus learns many behaviors before they are needed viz. eye movement, fetal breathing, the movements of which are noticed at 10-11 weeks of gestation. It is the opinion of scientists belonging to this school of thought that the fetus learns, practises and memorises some behaviors well before they are needed so that they are competent enough when these functions are needed. The same pattern may even extend to psychological functions.
- It may be necessary for recognizing the mother and finding security in closeness to her. there is substantive evidence that the fetus learns the nuances of mother's speech prenetally and prefers it's mother's voice to other female voices after birth (DeCasper AJ, Fifer WP. Of human bondage: Newborns prefer their mothers' voices. Science 1980;208:1174-6, Fifer TM, Moon C. Psychobiology of newborn auditory preferences. Seminars in Perinatology. 1989;13:430-3, Hepper PG, Scott D, Shahdullah S. Newborn and fetal response to maternal voice. J Reproduct Infant Psychol. 1993;11:147-53, DeCasper AJ, Spence MJ. Prenatal maternal speech influences newborns' perception of speech sound. Infant Behav Devel 1986;9:133-50, Hepper PG, Scott D, Shahdullah S. Newborn and fetal response to maternal voice. J Reproduct Infant Psychol 1993;11:147-53). The mother's voice becomes a familiar auditory stimulus for the new-born baby to respond to and probably becomes the starting point of attachment to the mother. It is also suggested that the smell of mother is learnt at prenatal stage itself and becomes an additional familiar stimulus for the new-born baby. (Porter RH. Mutual mother-infant recognition in humans. In: Hepper PG, editor Kin recognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1991).
- Fetal memory may be important for establishment of breast feeding.. the mother's diet gives flavor to both the amniotic fluid and her breast milk. (Mennella JA, Beauchamp GK. Maternal diet alters the sensory qualities of human milk and the nursling's behavior. Pediatrics 1991;88:737-744, Mennella JA, Beauchamp GK. The transfer of alcohol to human milk: effects on flavor and the infant's behavior. New Engl J Med 1991;325:981-85, Hepper PG. Adaptive fetal learning: prenatal exposure to garlic affects postnatal preference. Animal Behav 1988;36:935-6). (Note: Amniotic fluid is the protective liquid contained in the amniotic sac of a pregnant female. It is commonly called pregnant woman's water). The fetus learns about the flavor of the amniotic water at the gestation period of about 12 weeks when it begins to swallow this fluid. When the mother starts its first breast feeding, the new-born baby recognises the secretion from mother's breasts as familiar due to the similarity of taste with the amniotic fluid. Recent evidence suggests that the fetus can learn tastes experienced prenatally and through such learning acquire a preference for these tastes. Mothers who change their diets after the birth of a baby mat find it difficult to establish breastfeeding.
- It may be necessary for acquisition of language. Fetus can learn its mother's voice. The fetus is able to hear inside the womb after its auditory ability is live around the gestation period of 22 weeks. (DeCasper AJ, Fifer WP. Of human bondage: Newborns prefer their mothers' voices. Science 1980;208:1174-6, Fifer TM, Moon C. Psychobiology of newborn auditory preferences. Seminars in Perinatology. 1989;13:430-3, Hepper PG, Scott D, Shahdullah S. Newborn and fetal response to maternal voice. J Reproduct Infant Psychol. 1993;11:147-53, DeCasper AJ, Spence MJ. Prenatal maternal speech influences newborns' perception of speech sound. Infant Behav Devel 1986;9:133-50, Hepper PG, Scott D, Shahdullah S. Newborn and fetal response to maternal voice. J Reproduct Infant Psychol 1993;11:147-53). The fetus is also able to differentiate between different speech sounds in the womb.(Lecanuet J-P, Granier-Deferre C, DeCasper AJ, Maugeais R, Andrieu A-J, Busnel M-C. Perception et discrimination foetale de stimuli langagiers, mise en evidence a partir de la reactivite cardiaque. Resultats preliminaries. C-R de l'Acad Sci Paris. Serie III 1987;305:161-64, Lecanuet J-P, Granier-Deferre C, Jacquet AY, Capponi I. Ledru L. Prenatal discrimination of male and female voice uttering the same sentence. Early Devel Parenting 1993;2:217-28, Shahdullah S, Hepper PG. Frequency discrimination by the fetus. Early Human Devel 1994;36:13-26). Newborns also seem to have preference for their mother's native language. It may be that experience of speech prenatally begins the process of acquiring language.
The function of the fetal memory may be any or a combination of the above or it may be something else. This area requires much work to be done.
Namaste
Till next time
Prabir
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