I’ve got a piece in today’s Observer about the amazing science of doing functional brain imaging and behavioural studies with babies while they are still in the womb to see the earliest stages of neurocognitive development.
Brain development during pregnancy is key for future health, which is why it gets checked so thoroughly during prenatal examinations. But neuroscientists have become increasingly interested in how the activity of the brain becomes progressively integrated and synchronised during development to support human experience, something developmental neuroscientist Moriah Thomason calls “bringing us closer to the blueprints of the brain”.
It’s difficult to state how remarkable this is, both technically and scientifically, as researchers have managed to measure the unborn brain in action as it responds to the outside world through the womb.
The article looks at how this science is developing and what it’s telling us about the earliest stages of the developing brain.
Exciting stuff.
Link to ‘Prenatal blueprints give an early glimpse of a baby’s developing brain’
Mind Hacks 
interesting article-absolutely fascinated by the potential to understand how babies relate to the world around them. Also this may offer means to study connections in the adult brain. Remarkable that it is even possible to take fMRI pictures of fetus brain in the first place.
Reblogged this on peakmemory and commented:
“functional brain imaging and behavioural studies with babies while they are still in the womb”
Kinda puts a new perspective on what mom’s are really doing to their developing babies whenever they drink and smoke during pregnancy!