The problem, of course, is how one separates _direct_ effects on the fetus
from effects that are artifacts of effects on the mother?
Given that the mother is the fetus' environment, plus the shared blood
supply (and endocrine effects) one would expect that any environmental
manipulation that affected the mother would also affect the fetus.
You'd need a very small set of headphones delivered by catheter ;-)
At 3:00 PM -0500 12/18/00, Stephen Black wrote:
>On Sat, 16 Dec 2000, Patti Price wrote:
>
>> I received this question via e-mail from one of my students. Is anyone
>> familiar with articles that address these questions?
>>
>> "There has been a claim that classical music soothes the unborn child. At
>> how many months would this be possible? How about other kinds
>> of music? And will the child respond similarly to similar music
>> after birth?"
>
>Two questions here:
>
>1) Does music, classical or otherwise, soothe the fetus?
>
>2) Does a baby, exposed to classical or other music as a fetus,
> become soothed when exposed to the same music after birth?
>
>For l), never having been pregant, for which I give thanks, I can
>only speculate. By "soothe the fetus", I assume the question
>means "less fetal movement". But fetal movement may not indicate
>distress, but the contrary. It's even possible that movement by
>the fetus is important for neuromuscular development. So it's not
>obvious it's a good idea to want to decrease fetal movement.
>
>But it's still an interesting question to ask whether external
>sound can affect fetal movement. The fetus can hear in the last
>trimester of pregnancy. This was demonstrated in an experiment
>(Birnholz & Benacerraf, 1983) involving the application of a loud
>"vibroacoustic device" to the pregnant woman's abdomen and
>observing fetal blink responses, and by an fMRI study (Hykin et
>al, 1999) showing that the fetal auditory cortex lights up to a
>nursery rhyme played loudly to the mother's abdomen.
>
>So, one could use ultrasound to monitor fetal movement while
>playing various selections (Mozart, Celine Dion, BareNaked
>Ladies, silence) loudly at the mother's abdomen. Another thought
>for a less high-tech experiment would be to use the mother as a
>fetal movement detector, and have her report every 10 seconds
>whether the fetus moved as a function of music or no music.
>Rather than being soothed, it's possible that the fetus might
>instead bop along to the sound. Any pregnant moms out there want
>to give it a try?
>
>As for (2), I'm not aware of any study showing that prenatal
>exposure to classical music soothes a baby postnatally. But if
>you're talking soap themes, the answer is yes. Hepper (1991)
>carried out a truly neat natural experiment involving pregnant
>mums whose favourite soap was the Australian programme
>"Neighbours". These fetuses got a lot of the Neighbours theme,
>considering that it was on at least once, and sometimes twice a
>day. The control group were mothers who didn't watch it. Two to
>four days after birth, playing the "Neighbours" theme decreased
>heart-rate and movement in the experimentals, but not in the
>controls. Hepper also showed in a follow-up experiment that
>"Neighbours" babies didn't respond either to the theme of
>"Coronation Street", another soap, or to "Neighbours" played
>backwards. But in support of my "bopping hypothesis", he did find
>(using ultrasound) that "Neighbours" fetuses moved more in utero
>to the sound of that theme than did control fetuses.
>
>-Stephen
>
>References
>
>Birnholz, J., & Bernacerraf, B. (1983). The development of human
> fetal hearing. Science, 22, 516-518.
>
>Hepper, P. (1991). An examination of fetal learning before and
> after birth. The Irish Journal of Psychology, 12, 95-107
>
>Hykin, J. et al (1999). Fetal brain activity demonstrated by
> functional magnetic resonance imaging. The Lancet, 354, 645.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
>Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
>Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Lennoxville, QC
>J1M 1Z7
>Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
> Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at:
> http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips/
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
