Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Theme 2: Foetal senses. - Coggle Diagram
Theme 2: Foetal senses.
-
-
Touch: The pioneer.
-
Well-developed at birth, allowing exploration and connection with caregivers.
Develops earliest, beginning around the mouth at approximately 8 weeks.
-
Primitive focus: Emphasise that early responses likely centre around survival needs and sensations, not complex emotions.
Maternal influence.
-
Underscore this is not a direct mirroring of emotions but highlights a connection between maternal well-being and the foetus.
-
Complexity: Acknowledge the difficulty in defining foetal emotions in the same way we understand adult experiences.
- Principles of prenatal development.
General specific principle: Organs begin with basic structures and characteristics, gradually developing more specialised details and functions.
Importance hierarchy principle: Development prioritises structures and systems crucial for survival before focusing on less essential features.
Cephalocaudal principle: Development progresses from head to toe. Structures near the head are initially more advanced than those further down the body.
- Prenatal brain development.
Neural tube origins.
-
Brain develops from the neural plate, which folds to form the neural tube.
Potential defects: Failure of the neural tube to close can lead to severe birth defects like spina bifida or anencephaly.
Early start, prolonged development.
Continues for years post-birth, making it one of the slowest organs to mature.
-
-
- Prenatal brain development: Gross structural changes.
-
-
-
Neural tube beginnings.
Following closure, the rostral end of the neural tube develops three swellings: forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain.
- Prenatal brain development: Cellular complexity.
Cell death (Pruning).
Pruning eliminates neurons with weak or inappropriate connections, sculpting the brain.
-
3 Key stages.
Migration: Cells move from their origin in the neural tube to their final locations, guided by radial glial cells.
Myelination and synaptogenesis: Nerve cells develop insulating myelin sheaths and form synapses to enable communication.
-
-
- Foetal development: Milestones of movement.
Early movements.
Simple reflexes triggered by the spinal cord, cause passive limb movement.
-
-
- Foetal behavioural states.
-
The four states.
2F: Active sleep (Frequent movement, eye movement, variations in heart rate).
3F: Quiet awake (No major movement, eye movement, steady heart rate).
4F: Active awake (Continuous movement, eye movement, elevated heart rate).
1F: Quiet sleep (Minimal movement, stable heart rate).
- Developing senses in the womb.
Hearing.
Sensitivity to frequency, intensity, and duration of sounds.
-
Response to sound begins around 22-24 weeks, evidenced by changes in fetal movement.
Womb environment is surprisingly noisy, with sounds from the mother's body and external environment reaching the fetus.
-
Foundations: All the senses adults possess operate to some extent in the fetus, though at a less developed level.
- Somatosensory development and the question of pain.
Pain.
Foetus might experience noxious stimuli, but likely not complex, conscious pain.
-
-
-
- Development of the pain system.
-
Immature brain.
Higher brain areas involved in the complex experience of pain are underdeveloped in the foetus. This makes the conscious experience of pain, as understood in adults, unlikely.
- Potential for response vs. conscious pain.
-
Uncertainty of feeling: Whether these reactions translate to complex pain as an adult is debated. Here's why:
Cortical immaturity: The cerebral cortex, crucial for complex thinking and feeling, isn't fully developed.
-
- Prenatal vision development.
Structural development.
Key structures of the eye, like the lens and retina, form throughout the 1st trimester.
The retina, containing light-sensitive cells, continues to mature throughout pregnancy.
Limited perception.
-
However, the prenatal experience of light exposure might play a role.
Early light detection.
It isn't full vision, but the foetus can likely perceive light-dark changes.
Around week 16 to 20 of pregnancy, the developing eyes become sensitive to light.