WEBVTT - What Can Babies See in the Womb? 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to brain stuff. From how stuff works, Hey, brain stuff, 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:10.559 Lauren Vogel bomb Here, it might seem like fetuses are 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:13.400 up to all that much other than growing in the cozy, 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:16.160 warm environment that is their mother's womb. And I mean 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:18.919 growing from a bundle of cells into an independently living, 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.400 breathing human being is a big enough job. However, research 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.000 published in the Journal of Current Biology shows that third 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:29.320 trimester fetuses have vision capabilities much more advanced than previously thought, 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:32.680 and further, they can choose what they want to look at. 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:37.040 Researchers from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom were keen 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.960 on expanding the understanding of fetal site capabilities. We spoke 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:43.720 via email with Vincent Read, the lead researcher and a 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:47.400 professor of psychology. He said, we've been able to explore 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:49.760 the use of all the fetal senses except for vision 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.400 up until now. There's a lot that we know about 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.480 newborn babies and their vision, but almost nothing with fetuses. 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:58.200 Just before they're born. The newborn is very good at 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:00.840 processing faces and prefers to look it faces over any 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:03.400 other shape. So it was logical to explore the development 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:07.880 of this preference before birth. The researchers examined a total 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:10.480 of thirty nine fetuses. There would have been more, but 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:12.360 some of the babies were in deep sleep because they 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:15.160 apparently missed the memo about participating in a research study, 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:19.399 while other tests experienced poor image quality. The fetuses ranged 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:21.640 in gestational age from two hundred and thirty one to 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:24.360 two hundred and fifty two days that's about thirty three 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.240 to thirty six weeks. Site is the final sense to 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.200 develop inside the womb, with eyes staying closed until around 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.319 just stational week twenty eight. This is because fetal retinas 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.399 aren't developed until that point. Oh and all of the 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:39.880 babies were singletons. No twins or multiple pregnancies were studied. 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:43.800 Because the safety and comfort of the fetal participants and 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:47.480 their mothers was of utmost importance, the researchers designed noninvasive 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.960 attempts to assess the baby's visual capabilities. To do so, 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:55.280 the scientists shown lights through the maternal tissue. Read explained 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:58.960 the light consisted of three dots. When these are arranged 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:01.360 to represent two the eyes and one for the mouth. 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:04.360 Newborn babies prefer to look at them more than anything else, 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:07.480 so we didn't show fetuses of face, but an image 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.840 that was face like. The researchers used for the ultrasound 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.600 to measure if and how much the fetuses turned their 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:17.520 heads in response to the stimuli. They also showed the 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:20.400 same three dot pattern, but inverted so it didn't resemble 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:23.560 a face in structure to the fetuses. As it turns out, 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.519 non facelike dots weren't as appealing. Read noted that newborns 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:32.560 don't find these configurations very interesting either. Although subtle attraction 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.160 to the face like configuration of three dots makes a 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:39.000 big difference in what we understand about developing site, Reid said, 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.080 it means we have this preference even before we're born. 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:44.839 It's either due to being innate or due to experiences 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:48.960 prior to birth. Another major finding of this research is 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.440 that it moves up the human visual timeline. Reid said, 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:55.280 we now know that the fetus actively engages with visual 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.800 information in the prenatal environment. The head movement was a 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.920 deliberate movement to track the stimuli that we presented. This 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.079 means that we can now look at many other aspects 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.680 of fetal vision. The study has laid the groundwork for 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.919 future delving into fetal vision because as it stands right now, 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.760 little is known about how much fetuses can see. Red said, 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.160 a week old infant has very poor focal vision. It's 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.560 all blurred. The same will be true for fetus a 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.760 few weeks before birth. We know that premature infants can 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.840 see shapes, lights, and details, but that's once they are born, 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:29.480 and it could be that the prenatal environment is different. 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:33.960 We need to find that out. Reed's group plans to 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.680 investigate whether fetuses can discriminate between quantities or numbers, which 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.640 he notes is something that newborns can do. He said, 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:43.080 if the fetus can do this too, this tells us 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:46.160 a lot about fetal cognitive abilities. We're also keen to 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.360 look at how the fetus sees motion. Babies prefer to 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.320 look at animate or biological motion. If the fetus has 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:55.240 this preference, this would suggest that experiences they have had 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:57.640 engaging with their own body may have given rise to 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:05.600 these preferences. Today's episode was written by Ali A. Hoyt 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:08.400 and produced by Tyler Clang for iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:10.640 For more on this and lots of other developing topics, 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.200 visit our home planet how stuff Works dot com and 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:15.720 for more podcasts. For my heart Radio, visit the iHeart 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.479 Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:19.200 favorite shows.