FETAL LEARNING IN UTERO

本研究的目的是探讨学习 胎儿在子宫内的能力 尽管对健康的关注 胎儿的发育继续产生相当大的兴趣， 产前行为，相对来说，我们对胎儿的行为知之甚少 并对子宫内环境的变化做出反应。 尽管 技术进步、方法问题和道德考虑 将人类胎儿的研究限制在间接监测， 出生后推理 因此，直接观察和实验是 只有在非人类实验对象身上才有可能。 技术开发在我们的 实验室和其他地方现在能够精确操纵 大鼠胎仔宫内环境及胎仔行为观察 在子宫里 简而言之，这些程序包括将大鼠胎儿暴露在 子宫对味道/气味刺激，然后是厌恶 腹腔注射氯化锂或加强口内输注 牛奶 在怀孕的女性通过化学脊髓切开术准备后， 在不使用药物的情况下产生不可逆的脊髓麻醉， 使用厌恶或食欲程序调节的胎儿 可以从子宫中取出，放入温盐水中， 胎盘-子宫附着完整，并观察其行为。 胎儿 那些已经用厌恶或食欲程序调节过的， 重新暴露于味道-气味刺激，并分析它们的反应， 评估各种关于胎儿在子宫内学习的假设。 四 胎儿学习的一般研究建议：（1）确定 最早的产前年龄，在这一年龄，习得的味觉/气味厌恶可以是 获得性;（2）表征胎儿在子宫内对 条件性味觉/气味刺激作为发育年龄的函数;（3） 评估胎儿获得和表达食欲学习的能力 在子宫内;和（4）研究行为状态的影响（例如， 胎儿激活）和环境背景（例如，环境温度） 胎儿在子宫内学习的获得和表达。 这些 实验将提供所需的信息，胎儿的行为， 厌恶和食欲的学习情况，并开始探索的作用 胎儿在随后的行为发展中的学习能力。

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.