Fetal Development

A Psychobiological Perspective

Jean-Pierre Lecanuet, William P. Fifer, Norman A. Krasnegor, William P. Smotherman

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781134782253
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psicología
• Subtopic: Historia y teoría en psicología

Based on the presentations given by well-known specialists at a recent multidisciplinary conference of developmental psychobiologists, obstetricians, and physiologists, this book is the first exhaustive attempt to synthesize the present scientific knowledge on fetal behavior. Utilizing a psychobiological analytic approach, it provides the reader with an overview of the perspectives, hypotheses, and experimental results from a group of basic scientists and clinicians who conduct research to elucidate the role of fetal behavior in development. Experimental and clinical as well as human and animal data are explored via comparative developmental analysis. The ontogeny of fetal spontaneous activity -- via the maturation of "behavioral states" -- and of fetal responsiveness to sensory stimulation is studied in detail. Results are provided from studies of embryonic/fetal and newborn behavior in chicks, rats, sheep, primates, and humans. Knowledge of fetal behavior is crucial to the obstetrician, neonatologist, developmental psychologist, and even the future parents, in order to follow and assess the gradual development of spontaneous responsive movements of the fetus. While assessing this important information, this text also examines the neuro-behavioral events taking place during the fetal period as an aid to understanding normal and pathological life span development.

Part I

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

1

Behavioral Development of the Fetus

Norman A. Krasnegor

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health

Jean-Pierre Lecanuet

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

During this century, with few exceptions, studies of the earliest ontogenetic period of behavioral development focused on observations of the newborn animal or human neonate. Yet, as recently as the 1960s, developmentalists, pediatricians, and behavioral scientists still believed the newborn to be a tabula rasa (James, 1890). The conclusion, based on this belief, was that human newborns were considered incapable of doing, learning or knowing anything until sufficient time (some thought as much as 6 months) had elapsed and sensory and perceptual capacity developed enough for them to begin to adapt behaviorally and psychologically to their terrestrial environment. During the past 3 decades, research findings have dramatically altered this conceptualization of the ontogeny of behavioral development.

We now know that human babies are sentient beings who are aware of their surroundings, can learn within hours of birth, and are responsive to their environment at sensory, behavioral, and psychological levels. Research has convincingly documented that newborn human babies are capable of adaptation, of identifying their caregivers, and of eliciting behavior from them (Gandelman, 1992; Rovee-Collier & Lipsitt, 1993). This revolution in our understanding of the newborn’s psychobiological capacity raises questions concerning the origins of the observed behavior and the capacity to adapt after birth.

Birth is clearly a dramatic event in the life of all placental organisms, because it demarcates the change from an aquatic to a terrestrial existence. However, the behavioral repertoire of newborns is so sophisticated that one must ask, should the roots of behavior be sought before birth? A group of leading scientists who study prenatal behavior have argued that the fetus is vitally involved in its own development (Smotherman & Robinson, 1988). This process entails two tasks. The first of these is to learn about and adapt to its uterine environment. The second is to prepare for postnatal life.

Research on fetal behavioral development is still a relatively new enterprise. Although historically there have been studies of prenatal development by behavioral embryologists (Smotherman & Robinson, 1988), the modern era of systematic fetal behavior investigation has been under way only since the late 1970s. Prior to this time the field of scientific inquiry concerning fetal behavioral development was not unlike that described already for the human newborn. The inability to directly observe and quantify fetal behavior during gestation led to much speculation by clinicians, scientists and parents-to-be concerning the development of fetal state, movement, and sensory capacity. Some of this speculation was based on cultural and religious traditions derived, in part, from basic texts such as the Old Testament, the Mahrabata, and so on. Technological innovations such as ultrasonography changed the rules of the game. Direct visualization allowed clinicians to see and describe the fetus and its behavior in real time. Scientific advances, based on the use of model animal systems, provided methods for directly observing and quantifying fetal movement, sensory capacity, and learning in utero.

In 1984, the Human Learning and Behavior Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) hosted a workshop to assess the approaches for measuring fetal behavioral development. A group of scientists who pioneered research on fetal behavioral capacities outlined methodological advances made and problems associated with studying development during gestation (Kolata, 1984). In 1985, the NICHD hosted a conference on perinatal development. At that gathering was a group of leading U.S. psychobiologists who conduct research on behavior during the period of development that includes the last trimester through the first month of postnatal life. Several participating scientists presented research findings that demonstrated linkages between prenatal and postnatal behavioral development (Krasnegor, Blass, Hofer, & Smotherman, 1987).

Much has been learned concerning the capacities of the human fetus. For example, systematic observation of human fetuses, through the use of ultrasonography, has led to the characterization of four behavioral states (see Nijhuis, chapter 5, and Arduini, Rizzo, & Romanini, chapter 6, this volume). Data reveal that the human fetus has the capacity to habituate. Knowledge of this capability allowed scientists to employ a behavioral paradigm to ask questions of the developing fetus. For example, the human fetus was challenged to distinguish between speech stimuli and was found able to make such discriminations. Human neonates, within 2 days of birth, were able to distinguish between auditory stimuli (rhyming children’s stories) that they were exposed to or not exposed to during the last trimester of gestation (DeCasper & Spence, 1986).

Based on acoustical measurements made, three naturally occurring, high-fidelity, auditory stimuli are continuously available to the developing fetus. These are maternal heart sounds, maternal bowel sounds, and maternal voice. Research results have demonstrated that these naturally occurring sounds are functionally important for the newborn. For example, maternal heart sounds have been used in neonatal intensive care nurseries to calm premature infants. Studies have also shown that on the first day of life, human newborns exhibit a preference for their mother’s voice compared to that of another woman (Decasper & Fifer, 1980). How can human neonates so quickly identify their mother’s voice and distinguish it from that of another female? Developmental psychobiologists, who made these important observations, assert that preference for and, by implication, recognition of maternal voice just after birth are based on the neonate’s exposure to voice sounds during fetal development. Accurate discrimination of maternal voice is a behavior that, among others, is important for establishing the psychological attachment between the mother and her offspring.

Because research on behavioral development of human fetuses is so expensive, labor-intensive, and difficult to carry out and interpret, the vast majority of fetal behavioral studies have been conducted using animal models. Such model systems are of great scientific value because they provide the opportunity to establish reliable methods to directly observe and quantify fetal behaviors of interest. Such tactics are the hallmark of good science. These approaches have enabled developmental psychobiologists to discover and describe the ontogeny of embryonic/fetal and newborn behavior patterns (motor, sensory, and learning) in several species (e.g., chick, rat, and sheep) and ascertain mechanisms that underlie such development.

For example, rigorous and highly reliable methods have been established to systematically observe, manipulate, and quantify behavior in the fetal rat. The developmental trajectory of normative motor patterns in fetal rats has been studied and classified in terms of their frequency and sequence of appearance from day 16 to parturition (Smotherman & Robinson, 1987). Such data have been used to establish baselines for assessing prenatal learning. The data reveal that rat fetuses have the capacity for associative conditioning (a form of learning). Other studies demonstrate that such learning is retained for up to 2 weeks after birth in neonatal rat pups that were conditioned as fetuses. More recent work has revealed the role of endogenous peptides in the acquisition of in utero conditioned behavior in fetal rats (see Robinson & Smotherman, chapter 16, this volume). Fetal lambs have also been studied to gain an understanding of fetal motor and sensory development and learning. Significant advances have been made in elucidating the capacity of the fetal lamb to habituate and dishabituate. Recent work has evaluated the possible deleterious effects of vibroacoustic stimulation (VAS) on the behavior of fetal lambs. This work is important due to the use made by obstetricians of VAS to assess human fetal well-being (see Gagnon, chapter 8, Kisilevsky, chapter 14, Leader, chapter 21, and Abrams, Gerhardt, & Peters, chapter 17, this volume).

As evidenced by the contents of this volume, developmental psychobiologists have been instrumental in providing reliable and valid methods to study fetal development of humans and animal models. Future progress necessitates that multiple disciplines become involved in the context of an interdisciplinary effort to gain a comprehensive understanding of the role fetal behavior plays in development. Basic scientists and clinicians should ally themselves with developmental psychobiologists to study behavioral development during gestation. There is a need for input from the disciplines of developmental neurobiology, fetal medicine, and neonatology to pose and answer questions concerning the origins and effects of prenatal behavior on the whole organism. In the future, questions should be raised and research conducted to determine:

1. How is prenatal behavioral development involved in sculpting of the central nervous system?

2. How can fetal-medicine practitioners best establish and then employ behavioral baselines to assess the well-being of normally developing fetuses and those who are diagnosed as being ill?

3. How can psychologists and neonatologists best apply knowledge of fetal behavioral development to enhance the design of environments and treatment regimens for the premature infant?

Answers to these and other questions will greatly enrich our basic understanding of prenatal behavioral development and will demonstrate the value of such scientifically based knowledge for the betterment of the health of our future generations of children.

The volume is divided into six sections: Part I: Historical Overview, Part II: Introduction: Basic Concepts, Part III: Behavioral States of the Fetus, Part IV: Motor and Sensory Development of the Fetus, Part V: Fetal Experience: Basic Studies, and Part VI: Clinical Evaluation of Perinatal Experience.

The ideas, methods, and data set forth in this book represent cutting-edge work in the field of fetal behavioral development. The international participation reflects the interest, worldwide, in the topic for both scientists and clinicians.

CHAPTER THEMES

Part I: Historical Overview

This provides a historical perspective on fetal behavioral development research and a description of the central theme(s) for each chapter.

Part II: Introduction: Basic Concepts

This section provides an overview of some basic concepts that govern fetal behavioral development and the linkages from the prenatal period to postnatal behavior of the newborn.

The work is by William P. Smotherman and Scott R. Robinson. Smotherman and Robinson are developmental psychobiologists who are acknowledged pioneers in the field of fetal behavioral development research. They and their colleagues have developed procedures, using an animal model (fetal rat), to directly observe and quantify fetal behavior. In their chapter, Smotherman and Robinson give an overview of fetal behavioral development and its contribution to gaining a deep understanding of the roots of postnatal behavioral development. They provide examples from their own research on the control and development of behavioral patterns that become functionally relevant after birth.

Part III: Behavioral States of the Fetus

This section contains seven chapters that focus on experimental and clinical investigations of state development in the fetal animal and human.

The first chapter is by Michael M. Myers, Karl F. Schulze, William P. Fifer, and Raymond I. Stark, a team of developmental psychobiologists and neonatologists, who employ a comparative strategy to investigate transitions from fetal to newborn life. The authors elucidate a quantitative method for classifying patterns of electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in the fetal baboon. This approach permits systematic and detailed analysis of the emergence in a primate model of fetal states such as quiet sleep and active sleep which are believed to be homologous with patterns observed in the human fetus and newborn.

The next chapter is by Raymond I. Stark and Michael M. Myers, a neonatologist and developmental psychobiologist, whose research focus is on perinatal physiology. They employ animal models (fetal lamb and fetal baboon) to monitor longitudinal development of fetal behavior and physiology. Stark and Myers describe their research to characterize and quantify patterns of breathing activity in the fetal baboon. Their results demonstrate how such patterns develop and their similarity to patterns observed in the human fetus.

The third chapter is by Jan G. Nijhuis, an obstetrician, who works in the field of perinatology and ultrasonography. He and his colleagues have defined four fetal behavioral states that have gained wide acceptance among clinicians and researchers. His chapter provides an overview of the insights given, through the use of ultrasonographic recordings, of fetal behavioral state development. He elucidates the cyclic nature of behavioral states that are best observed during the last weeks of pregnancy.

Next, Domenico Arduini, Giuseppe Rizzo, and Carlo Romanini, who are obstetricians, present an overview of their investigation of the ontogeny of fetal state. Arduini and his colleagues discuss the development of fetal behavioral state in terms of fetal behaviors. They detail data from their own research on how transitions between measured states and their duration and organization can be employed to characterize the health status of the human fetus.

The next chapter is by David James, Mary Pillai, and John Smoleniec, specialists in fetomaternal medicine, who study the neurobehavioral development of the human fetus. James and his colleagues provide an overview of their research on the neurodevelopmental assessment of human fetuses with a view toward making their findings relevant to the practicing obstetrician.

The following chapter is by Robert Gagnon, an obstetrician, who investigates behavioral states in the fetal lamb and fetal human. Gagnon discusses the advantages and disadvantages of employing VAS to assess fetal well being. VAS, a procedure that is increasingly being used by obstetricians, when delivered to the fetus can induce a change in behavioral state from quiet sleep to active sleep and thereby provide clues about health of the fetus. The author argues in favor of employing undisturbed observations of the fetus, without VAS, to assess the fetus’s health status.

The final chapter in this section is by Karl F. Schulze, Sudha Kashyap, Rakesh Sahni, William P. Fifer, and Michael M. Myers, a team of neonatologists and developmental psycholobiologists, who review their work on the development of behavioral states in the premature infant. Schulze and his colleagues describe their prospective, longitudinal research designed to elucidate relationships between diet (protein and energy intake) and state development in a group of low-birthweight babies. They show how dietary intake is specifically related to states of wakefulness and sleep. The authors discuss their findings for management of the premature infant and, by implication, the fetus in terms of dietary effects on state development.

Part IV: Motor and Sensory Development of the Fetus

This section of the volume consists of five chapters that explore the motor capacity of the fetus and its responsivity to olfactory, tactile, and auditory stimulation.

The first chapter is authored by Steven S. Robertson and Leigh Foster Bacher, developmental psychologists, who are interested in the cyclical organization of motor behavior in fetal and newborn mammals. The authors describe approaches for mathematically modeling the ontogeny of cyclic motor activity in the deve...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Part 1 Historical Overview
• Part 2 Introduction: Basic Concepts
• Part 3 Behavioral States of the Fetus
• Part 4 Motor and Sensory Development of the Fetus
• Part 5 Fetal Experience: Basic Studies
• Part 6 Clinical Evaluation of Perinatal Experience
• Author Index
• Subject Index