tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4495732617788800716.post6529716808334261994..comments2023-02-28T05:24:02.483-07:00Comments on Life, Among Other Things: Abominable: awful, detestableΩ B Ωhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12619138933460026179noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4495732617788800716.post-35686312205461298602010-11-09T13:11:00.225-07:002010-11-09T13:11:00.225-07:00"The Womb. Your Mother. Yourself." by An..."The Womb. Your Mother. Yourself." by Annie Murphy Paul. Time Magazine. October 2010.Kara Ingberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10240596239692910697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4495732617788800716.post-58535698652523991112010-11-09T13:05:32.916-07:002010-11-09T13:05:32.916-07:00As promised:
"At the farthest edge of fetal-...As promised:<br /><br />"At the farthest edge of fetal-origins research, scientists are exploring the possibility that intrauterine conditions influence not only our physical health but also our intelligence, temperament, even our sanity. It could even be the case that a pregnant woman's emotional state influences her offspring's later susceptibility to mental illness. 'We know that some people have genetic predispositions to conditions like depression and anxiety,' Monk says, Assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia University. 'And we know that being raised by a parent with mental illness can increase the risk of mental illness in the offspring. It may be that the intrauterine environment is a third pathway by which mental illness is passed down in families.' At Monk's lab, pregnant women who are depressed or anxious and pregnant women with normal moods are hooked up to devices that measure their respiration, heart rate, blood pressure and nervous system arousal, as well as the movements and heart rate of their fetuses, and then subjected to challenging mental exercises. All of the women show physiological signs of stress in response to the tests, but only the fetuses of depressed or anxious women display disturbances of their own. 'This difference suggests that these fetuses are already more sensitive to stress,' Monk says. Perhaps that's because of a genetic predisposition inherited from the parents. Or it could be because the fetuses' nervous systems are already being shaped by their mothers' emotional states.' This kind of research is pushing back the starting line for when we become who we are."Kara Ingberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10240596239692910697noreply@blogger.com