FETAL LEARNING IN UTERO

被提议的研究的目的是调查学习 胎儿在子宫内的能力。虽然对健康的关注 胎儿的发育继续引起人们对 产前行为，目前对胎儿行为的了解相对较少 并对其子宫环境的变化做出反应。尽管 技术进步、方法论问题和伦理思考 将对人类胎儿的研究限制在间接监测和 后天推理。因此，直接的观察和实验是 只有在非人类受试者身上才有可能。我们开发的技术 实验室和其他地方现在可以精确地操纵 大鼠胎鼠宫内环境及胎儿行为观察 在子宫里。简而言之，这些程序包括将大鼠胚胎暴露在 子宫对味觉/气味的刺激，然后是厌恶的 腹腔注射氯化锂或加强口腔内输注 牛奶。经化学髓鞘切开术制备怀孕女性后， 在不使用药物的情况下产生不可逆转的脊椎麻醉， 使用厌恶或食欲程序进行条件反射的胎儿 可以从子宫中排出，进入温盐水浴中，维持 胎盘-子宫附着完好，观察其行为。胎儿 已经使用厌恶或欲望程序进行条件反射的可能是 重新暴露在味觉刺激下，并分析他们的反应 评估关于胎儿在宫内学习的各种假设。四 提出了胎儿学习的一般研究：(1)确定胎儿学习的 习得的味觉/气味厌恶的最早产前年龄 获得性；(2)描述胎儿在宫内的反应 作为发育年龄函数的条件性味觉/气味刺激； 评估胎儿获得和表达胃口学习的能力 在子宫内；以及(4)调查行为状态的影响(例如， 胎儿激活)和环境环境(例如，环境温度) 胎儿学习在宫内的获得和表达。这些 实验将提供有关胎儿行为的必要信息 厌恶和渴望学习的情景，并开始探索其作用 胎儿学习在随后的行为发育中的作用。

The objective of the proposed research is to investigate the learning abilities of the fetus in utero. Although concern for the healthy development of the fetus continues to spawn considerable interest in prenatal behavior, relatively little is yet known about how a fetus behaves and responds to changes within its uterine environment. In spite of technological advances, methodological problems and ethical considerations have limited the study of the human fetus to indirect monitoring and postnatal inference. Therefore, direct observation and experimentation is possible only with nonhuman subjects. Techniques developed in our laboratory and elsewhere now enable precise manipulation of the intrauterine environment of rat fetuses and observation of fetal behavior in utero. In brief, these procedures involve exposing the rat fetus in utero to a taste/odor stimulus followed by either an aversive intraperitoneal injection of LiCl or a reinforcing intraoral infusion of milk. After the pregnant female is prepared by chemomyelotomy, which produces an irreversible spinal anesthesia without the use of drugs, fetuses that have been conditioned using aversive or appetitive procedures can be delivered out of the uterus into a warm saline bath, maintaining the placental-uterine attachment intact, and their behavior observed. Fetuses that have been conditioned using aversive or appetitive procedures can be reexposed to the taste-odor stimulus and their responses analyzed to evaluate a variety of hypotheses concerning fetal learning in utero. Four general studies of fetal learning are proposed: (1) to determine the earliest prenatal age at which learned taste/odor aversions can be acquired; (2) to characterize fetal responses in utero to aversively conditioned taste/odor stimuli as a function of developmental age; (3) to evaluate the ability of fetuses to acquire and express appetitive learning in utero; and (4) to investigate the influence of behavioral state (e.g., fetal activation) and environmental context (e.g., ambient temperature) on the acquisition and expression of fetal learning in utero. These experiments will provide needed information on the behavior of the fetus in aversive and appetitive learning situations and begin to explore the role of fetal learning in subsequent behavioral development.