Thu Feb 11, 2010
An article by David Chamberlain that I've been reading is cut and
pasted below. I am in the early early stages of developing some movement
work based on fetal stages of movement (in-utero movements). This is
part of a new piece I am working on that will incorporate responses to a
robotic entity (dinosaur toy) called the Pleo. I just ordered a Pleo
from Ugobe, a robotics company that makes them.
I have been thinking a lot about breathing (air and water). Seeking
light and warmth. The replacement of the in-utero environment by the out
of utero environment. The connections between the internal warmth of
the mother's body and the external behavioral exchanges between mother
and child.
The Fetal Senses: A Classical View
By David B. Chamberlain, Ph.D.
Sensitivity to Touch
The maternal womb is an optimal, stimulating, interactive environment
for human development. Activity never ceases and a fetus is never
isolated. Touch, the first sense, is the cornerstone of human experience
and communication, beginning in the womb (Montagu, 1978).
Just before 8 weeks gestational age (g.a.), the first sensitivity to
touch manifests in a set of protective movements to avoid a mere hair
stroke on the cheek. From this early date, experiments with a hair
stroke on various parts of the embryonic body show that skin sensitivity
quickly extends to the genital area (10 weeks), palms (11 weeks), and
soles (12 weeks). These areas of first sensitivity are the ones which
will have the greatest number and variety of sensory receptors in
adults. By 17 weeks, all parts of the abdomen and buttocks are
sensitive. Skin is marvellously complex, containing a hundred varieties
of cells which seem especially sensitive to heat, cold, pressure and
pain. By 32 weeks, nearly every part of the body is sensitive to the
same light stroke of a single hair.
The Fetus In Motion
The first dramatic motion, one that has come to symbolize life
itself, is the first heartbeat at about three weeks after conception.
This rhythmic activity continues while valves, chambers, and all other
parts and connections are under construction--illustrating an important
fact about development: parts are pressed into service as they become
available. Furthermore, use is necessary for development.
Between week six and ten, fetal bodies burst into motion, achieving
graceful, stretching, and rotational movements of the head, arms and
legs. Hand to head, hand to face, hand to mouth movements, mouth
opening, closing, and swallowing are all present at 10 weeks (Tajani and
Ianniruberto, 1990). By 14 weeks, the complete repertoire of fetal
movements seen throughout gestation are already in evidence (deVries,
Visser, and Prechtl, 1985). Movement is spontaneous, endogenous, and
typically cycles between activity and rest. Breathing movements and jaw
movements have begun. Hands are busy interacting with other parts of the
body and with the umbilical cord.
From this early stage onward, movement is a primary activity,
sometimes begun spontaneously, sometimes provoked by events. Spontaneous
movement occurs earliest, probably expressing purely individual
interests and needs. Evoked movement reflects sensitivity to the
environment. For example, between 10 and 15 weeks g.a., when a mother
laughs or coughs, her fetus moves within seconds.
The vestibular system, designed to register head and body motion as
well as the pull of gravity begins developing at about 8 weeks. This
requires construction of six semicircular canals, fluid-filled
structures in the ears, which are sensitive to angular acceleration and
deceleration, and help maintain balance.
Tasting and Smelling
The structures for tasting are available at about 14 weeks g.a. and
experts believe that tasting begins at that time. Tests show that
swallowing increases with sweet tastes and decreases with bitter and
sour tastes. In the liquid womb space, a range of tastes are presented
including lactic, pyruvic, and citric acids, creatinine, urea, amino
acids, proteins and salts. Tests made at birth reveal exquisite taste
discrimination and definite preferences.
Until recently, no serious consideration was given to the
possibilities for olfaction in utero, since researchers assumed smelling
depended on air and breathing. However, the latest research has opened
up a new world of possibilities. The nasal chemoreceptive system is more
complex than previously understood, and is made up of no less than four
subsystems: the main olfactory, the trigeminal, the vomeronasal, and
the terminal system, which provide complex olfactory input to the fetus.
The nose develops between 11 and 15 weeks. Many chemical compounds
can cross the placenta to join the amniotic fluid, providing the fetus
with tastes and odors. The amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus bathes
the oral, nasal, and pharyngeal cavities, and babies breathe it and
swallow it, permitting direct access to receptors of several
chemosensory systems: taste buds in three locations, olfactory
epithelia, vomeronasal system, and trigeminal system (Smotherman and
Robinson, 1995).
Associations formed in utero can alter subsequent fetal behavior and
are retained into postnatal life. The evidence for direct and indirect
learning of odors in utero has been reviewed by Schaal, Orgeur, and
Rogan (1995). They point to an extraordinary range of available
odiferous compounds, an average of 120 in individual samples of amniotic
fluid! In addition, products of the mother's diet reach the baby via
the placenta and the blood flowing in the capillaries of the nasal
mucosa. Thus, prenatal experience with odorants from both sources
probably prepare this sensory system to search for certain odors or
classes of odors. In one experiment, babies registered changes in fetal
breathing and heart rate when mothers drank coffee, whether it was
caffeinated or decaffeinated. Newborns are drawn to the odor of
breastmilk, although they have no previous experience with it.
Researchers think this may come from cues they have learned in prenatal
life.
Listening and Hearing
Although a concentric series of barriers buffer the fetus from the
outside world--amniotic fluid, embryonic membranes, uterus, and the
maternal abdomen--the fetus lives in a stimulating matrix of sound,
vibration, and motion. Many studies now confirm that voices reach the
womb, rather than being overwhelmed by the background noise created by
the mother and placenta. Intonation patterns of pitch, stress, and
rhythm, as well as music, reach the fetus without significant
distortion. A mother's voice is particularly powerful because it is
transmitted to the womb through her own body reaching the fetus in a
stronger form than outside sounds. For a comprehensive review of fetal
audition, see Busnel, Granier-Deferre, and Lecanuet 1992.
Sounds have a surprising impact upon the fetal heart rate: a five
second stimulus can cause changes in heart rate and movement which last
up to an hour. Some musical sounds can cause changes in metabolism.
"Brahm's Lullabye," for example, played six times a day for five minutes
in a premature baby nursery produced faster weight gain than voice
sounds played on the same schedule (Chapman, 1975).
Researchers in Belfast have demonstrated that reactive listening
begins at 16 weeks g.a., two months sooner than other types of
measurements indicated. Working with 400 fetuses, researchers in Belfast
beamed a pure pulse sound at 250-500 Hz and found behavioral responses
at 16 weeks g.a.--clearly seen via ultrasound (Shahidullah and Hepper,
1992). This is especially significant because reactive listening begins
eight weeks before the ear is structurally complete at about 24 weeks.
These findings indicate the complexity of hearing, lending support to
the idea that receptive hearing begins with the skin and skeletal
framework, skin being a multireceptor organ integrating input from
vibrations, thermo receptors, and pain receptors. This primal listening
system is then amplified with vestibular and cochlear information as it
becomes available. With responsive listening proven at 16 weeks, hearing
is clearly a major information channel operating for about 24 weeks
before birth.
Development of Vision
Vision, probably our most predominant sense after birth, evolves
steadily during gestation, but in ways which are difficult to study.
However, at the time of birth, vision is perfectly focused from 8 to 12
inches, the distance to a mother's face when feeding at the breast.
Technical reviews reveal how extraordinary vision is in the first few
months of life (Salapatek and Cohen, 1987).
Although testing eyesight in the womb has not been feasible, we can
learn from testing premature babies. When tested from 28 to 34 weeks
g.a. for visual focus and horizontal and vertical tracking, they usually
show these abilities by 31-32 weeks g.a. Abilities increase rapidly
with experience so that by 33-34 weeks g.a., both tracking in all
directions as well as visual attention equals that of babies of 40 weeks
g.a. Full-term newborns have impressive visual resources including
acuity and contrast sensitivity, refraction and accommodation, spacial
vision, binocular function, distance and depth perception, color vision,
and sensitivity to flicker and motion patterns (Atkinson and Braddick,
1982). Their eyes search the environment day and night, showing
curiosity and basic form perception without needing much time for
practice (Slater, Mattock, Brown, and Gavin, 1991).
In utero, eyelids remain closed until about the 26th week. However,
the fetus is sensitive to light, responding to light with heart rate
accelerations to projections of light on the abdomen. This can even
serve as a test of well-being before birth. Although it cannot be
explained easily, prenates with their eyelids still fused seem to be
using some aspect of "vision" to detect the location of needles entering
the womb, either shrinking away from them or turning to attack the
needle barrel with a fist (Birnholz, Stephens, and Faria, 1978).
Similarly, at 20 weeks g.a., twins in utero have no trouble locating
each other and touching faces or holding hands!
The Senses in Action
Sense modalities are not isolated, but exist within an
interconnecting, intermodal network. We close this section about fetal
sensory resources by citing a few examples of how fetal senses work in
tandem. We have already indicated how closely allied the gustatory and
olfactory systems are, how skin and bones contribute to hearing, and how
vision seems functional even with fused eyelids. When prenates
experience pain, they do not have the air necessary to make sound, but
they do respond with vigorous body and breathing movements as well as
hormonal rushes. Within ten minutes of needling a fetus's intrahapatic
vein for a transfusion, a fetus shows a 590% rise in beta endorphin and a
183% rise in cortosol--chemical evidence of pain (Giannakoulopoulos,
1994).
Ultrasonographers have recorded fetal erections as early as 16 weeks
g.a., often in conjunction with finger sucking, suggesting that
pleasurable self-stimulation is already possible. In the third
trimester, when prenates are monitored during parental intercouse, their
hearts fluctuate wildly in accelerations and decelerations greater than
30 beats per minute, or show a rare loss of beat-to-beat variability,
accompanied by a sharp increase in fetal movement (Chayen et al, 1986).
This heart activity is directly associated with paternal and maternal
orgasms! Other experiments measuring fetal reactions to mothers'
drinking one ounce of vodka in a glass of diet ginger ale show that
breathing movements stop within 3 to 30 minutes. This hiatus in
breathing lasts more than a half hour. Although the blood alcohol level
of the mothers was low, as their blood alcohol level declined, the
percentage of fetal breathing movements increased (Fox et al, 1978).
Babies have been known to react to the experience of amniocentesis
(usually done around 16 weeks g.a.) by shrinking away from the needle,
or, if a needle nicks them, they may turn and attack it. Mothers and
doctors who have watched this under ultrasound have been unnerved.
Following amniocentesis, heart rates gyrate. Some babies remain
motionless, and their breathing motions may not return to normal for
several days.
Finally, researchers have discovered that babies are dreaming as
early as 23 weeks g.a.when rapid eye movement sleep is first observed
(Birnholz, 1981). Studies of premature babies have revealed intense
dreaming activity, occupying 100% of sleep time at 30 weeks g.a., and
gradually diminishing to around 50% by term. Dreaming is a vigorous
activity involving apparently coherent movements of the face and
extremities in synchrony with the dream itself, manifested in markedly
pleasant or unpleasant expressions. Dreaming is also an endogenous
activity, neither reactive or evoked, expressing inner mental or
emotional conditions. Observers say babies behave like adults do when
they are dreaming (Roffwarg, Muzio, and Dement 1966).
References
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