Fetal Neurobehavioral Development & Postnatal Continuity

技术进步提供了一个独特的机会来审查前一时期的贡献， 出生后的人类健康和发展。对童年和成年幸福的胎儿起源的兴趣 近年来呈指数级增长。我们一直在记录 胎儿在过去15年的主持下，这个奖项。我们的目标有三个方面，并将继续有三个方面。 这些包括：表征胎儿神经行为和生理发育的正常模式 在健康、低风险妊娠（个体发育）的妊娠期间发挥作用;确定母体如何 调解人，心理和生理，影响过程中的产前发展（产妇 影响）;以及评估从产前到产后发育的功能连续性， 理解个体差异的起源（预测）。下一个项目期将集中在我们的 对最早期关系的孕育根源的不断发展的兴趣，由对 妊娠的内在二元性提出了两项研究。第一次，155个答复 将在四个妊娠期评估母胎对行为和生理反应性的激发子 周期（即，18、24、30和36周），以阐明母亲和胎儿在 影响子宫内环境，并评估这些过程如何在妊娠期间发生变化。本研究 还将研究产妇的心理适应怀孕的背景下，母胎 同步性第二项研究将评估母胎相互作用和同步性的方式， 通过对120对夫妇的跟踪调查， 参与了一项产前纵向研究。产前数据包括母胎生物行为 从妊娠24周开始，以3周为间隔，在5次连续访视期间进行监测。当 当孩子2-1/2岁时，幼儿和母亲将参加一个基于实验室的程序， 在基线条件下测量配对的行为和生理同步程度 和挑战总之，这些研究将进一步加深我们对产前因素的理解， 对发育中的胎儿和孕妇产生积极或消极的影响，并为 最早的关系。

Technological advances have provided a unique opportunity to examine the contribution of the period before birth to subsequent human health and development. Interest in fetal origins of childhood and adult well-being has increased exponentially in recent years. We have been documenting normative development of the fetus for the past 15 years under the auspices of this award. Our goals have, and continue to be, threefold. These include: characterizing normal patterns of development of fetal neurobehavioral and physiological functioning during gestation in healthy, low risk pregnancies (Ontogeny); determining how maternal mediators, both psychological and physiological, affect the course of antenatal development (Maternal Influences); and evaluating continuity in function from prenatal to postnatal development in order to understand the origins of individual differences (Prediction). The next project period will focus on our evolving interest in the gestational roots of the earliest relationship, generated by the emergent recognition of the intrinsically dyadic nature of gestation. Two studies are proposed. In the first, responses of 155 maternal-fetal pairs to elicitors of behavioral and physiological reactivity will be evaluated at four gestational periods (i.e., 18, 24, 30, and 36 weeks) to clarify the relative contribution of mothers and fetuses in influencing the intrauterine milieu and to evaluate how these processes change over gestation. This study will also examine maternal psychological adaptation to pregnancy within the context of maternal-fetal synchrony. The second study will evaluate the manner in which maternal-fetal interaction and synchrony contributes to maternal-child interaction and synchrony during the third year life by following 120 pairs who participated in an antenatal longitudinal study. Prenatal data included maternal-fetal biobehavioral monitoring during five serial visits at three week intervals, commencing at 24 weeks gestation. When offspring are 2-1/2 years old, toddlers and mothers will participate in a laboratory-based procedure designed to measure the degree of behavioral and physiological synchrony of the pair under conditions of baseline and challenge. Taken together, these studies will further our understanding of the antenatal factors that impinge, positively or negatively, on the developing fetus and pregnant woman and provide the foundation of the earliest relationship.