Things we learn before we are born

Still in the mother's womb, human beings are capable of learning certain things.

It is often believed that birth is the moment when our life begins as beings capable of gaining autonomy. It is easy to think that the social life of the human being begins when there is no longer a physical separation between us and others. When we are able to breathe the same air, see the same things and look into each other's eyes.

This is all very intuitive and seems natural, but it is not true. Long before we leave our mother's womb, we already have the ability to learn things about the environment in which we live. learn things about the environment in which we will one day live, as multiple experiments have shown.as multiple experiments have shown.

Perception begins even in the womb

It is known that we are able to recognize our mother's vocalizations long before we are born.. This is already an example of learning, since it has to do with knowledge formed through repeated experiences and with a practical purpose (to recognize the person who will take care of us once we are born). In fact, it is it is recommended that mothers should talk to their unborn babies so that from the very first moments they are provided with different stimuli and can exercise their different skills. However, this phenomenon is just a sample of the many ways in which experience shapes our behavior during pregnancy.

Sound recognition is not limited to the voices of people nearby. It can be extended to other everyday sounds during the months of pregnancy. For example, there is evidence that unborn babies can recognize the sounds of television series music. in the music of television series that their mother regularly watches.

In addition, babies are able not only to recognize their mother's voice, but also her smell. Interestingly, newborns prefer the smell of sweat prefer the smell of sweat if it is their mothers'.. Babies a few weeks old react very strongly when exposed to the smell of the amniotic fluid in which they have been wrapped. This fact may give an idea of what is the key to recognize the mother's smell in objects she leaves behind.

Beyond the senses of hearing and smell, touch also plays a role in learning during pregnancy. Recent research, the results of which have been published in PLoS ONE shows how fetuses tend to respond to the mother's caresses on her belly by doing something similar with her body. In fact, the babies used as samples responded more strongly to these caresses than to the mother's voice, and they did so by touching their own thorax in a manner similar to what someone else was doing on the other side of the womb. The researchers believe this is an attempt to communicate with the mother.

Research continues

These are some of the conclusions that have been reached experimentally, but it is likely that there are other examples of learning before birth that have not yet been discovered. Taken together, this research shows that the mother's womb is as valid an environment as any other for learning, even if we do so without having started learning before birth.even if we do so before we have even begun to reach our first birthday.

Bibliographical references:

• Beauchamp, G. K., Katarina, K., Yamazaki, K., Mennella, J. A., Bard, J. and Boyse, E. A. (1995). Evidence suggesting that the odour types of pregnant women are a compound of maternal and fetal odour types . PNAS, 92, pp. 2617 - 2621.

• Hepper, P. G. (1988). Fetal "soap" addiction. The Lancet, 23(2), pp. 1347 - 1348.

• Marx, V. y Nagy, E. (2015). Fetal Behavioural Responses to Maternal Voice and Touch. PLoS ONE, consultado aquí.