Prenatal Development of Postnatal Functions

(Hardback)

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This book shows how, and in what ways, prenatal development serves as a preparation for life after birth. Largely, such explanation stemming from the transnatal continuity theory has been ignored in mainstream developmental psychology. However, since the advent of real-time ultrasonography with humans, and increasingly refined experiements with avian and mammalian species, plausible scenarios linking prenatal and postnatal development are beginning to emerge. One is the theory of fetal programming. Here, the authors provide authoritative reviews of current knowledge regarding continuities and discontinuities between prenatal and postnatal development of brain-behavior relationships across a variety of species, including humans.

Reviews

[R]eports on recent research on the connections between developments in prenatal structures and functions and postnatal developmental psychology. Topics addressed by the seven contributions include views of prenatal corticogenesis as informed by studies of gene expression and the manipulation of sensory experience, prenatal sensory experience and learning with the context of auditory modality, the acquisition of olfactory and gustatory prenatal preferences and their effects on behavior after birth, the idea that prenatal motor development is dependent on central pattern generators and proprioceptive feedback resulting from movement, prenatal to postnatal development of posture, and the effect of maternal stress and anxiety during pregnancy on postnatal development outcomes. * SciTech Book News *

Author Bio

Brian Hopkins is Professor in the Department of Psychology at Lancaster University. He was previously Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Faculty of Human Movement Sciences. Scott P. Johnson is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at New York University. He has held previous posts at Lancaster University, Texas A&M University and Cornell University.