Lecture 2 Flashcards
Discuss foetal sensory development
It is a fixed sequence: touch from about 50 days, vestibular sense from about 100 days, auditory sense from about 150 days, visual sense from about 180 days. BUT receptors protected while thalamocortical projections forming 50-170 days: eyelids fuse then reopen, sound transmission is blocked, skin pads cover finger tips.
How much does brain volume grow between birth and adulthood
Quadruples
Why does the brain volume quadruple between birth and adulthood
NOT from additional neurons. From a dramatic postnatal growth of synapses, dendrites & fiber bundles & from nerves becoming covered by a fatty myelin sheath.
What stimulates foetal receptors
Exteroceptive somasthetic stimulation. Olfactory & gustatory stimulation. Vestibular stimulation & Visual stimulation.
What is exteroceptive somasthetic stimulation
Mechanical forces, temperature & painful stimulation. Passive or active movements from mother - found differences in prenatal heart rate when mothers chair moved sideways or rocked
Where does olfactory & gustatory stimulation come from
From chemosensory molecules in amniotic fluid
Where does vestibular stimulation come from
Changes in orientation of foetal head, and velocity of its movement through space
What does vestibular stimulation refer to
Vibrations & auditory stimulations
Where does visual stimulation come from
Energy waves at certain frequencies
Describe the changes in whether or not prenatal experience matters over time
1700s: belief about the sensory isolation of the foetus from the world. 1800s: belief about relative isolation with minimal and profitable levels of sensory stimulation of the foetus. 1900s: belief that every sensory system expect vision & olfaction receives appropriate prenatal stimulation; that vestibular, cutaneous and chemical stimulation plays a major role in brain development.
Discuss some prenatal learning that is observable post-birth
Flavours in maternal diet - whatever mother ate during pregnancy, child has preference for that food & attracted to the odour of this. There is different heart rates at maternal voice vs other females - learnt it’s mothers voice.
At what ages can foetus’s show smiling and pain expressions
32 weeks.
Discuss preferences newborns are likely to have
Preferences for attractive faces & attractive tigers. Preference for own race by 3 months old. Prefer female voices than males, but mothers over anyone else’s.
What emotional expressions do infants have from birth
Full range!
Name 4 neonatal reflexes
Palmar grasp. Stepping. Crawling. Tonic neck.
