Behavior of the Fetus

This decade has seen a resurgence of interest in the prenatal development of behavior in animals, in part due to new technology which permits noninvasive, indirect monitoring of fetal activity and in part due to improved surgical procedures and other techniques that permit direct monitoring. All of these new techniques and methods are replacing the speculation of the past with empirical data about prenatal behavior. This volume provides a summary of the current state of thought. Historically, researchers have approached the subject from many different fields: child development, pediatric medicine, obstetrics, behavioral embryology, neurobiology, and psychobiology. This present volume attempts to unite these diverse interests by providing a concise introduction to the major conceptual issues, theoretical questions and empirically derived speculation as framed by leading scholars in the field of prenatal behavioral research. Researchers in fetal physiology and behavior, neonatal physiology and behavior, obstetrics, pediatrics, child development, and behavioral development will find this book useful in their own specific areas of concentration.