Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The functional foetal brain
T2 - a systematic preview of methodological factors in reporting fetal visual and auditory capacity
AU - Dunn, Kirsty
AU - Reissland, Nadja
AU - Reid, Vincent
PY - 2015/6
Y1 - 2015/6
N2 - Due to technological advancements in functional brain imaging, foetal brain responses to visual and auditory stimuli is a growing area of research despite being relatively small with much variation between research laboratories. A number of inconsistencies between studies are, nonetheless, present in the literature. This article aims to explore the potential contribution of methodological factors to variation in reports of foetal neural responses to external stimuli. Some of the variation in reports can be explained by methodological differences in aspects of study design, such as brightness and wavelength of light source. In contrast to visual foetal processing, auditory foetal processing has been more frequently investigated and findings are more consistent between different studies. This is an early preview of an emerging field with many articles reporting small sample sizes with techniques that are yet to be replicated. We suggest areas for improvement for the field as a whole, such as the standardisation of stimulus delivery and a more detailed reporting of methods and results. This will improve our understanding of foetal functional response to light and sound. We suggest that enhanced technology will allow for a more reliable description of the developmental trajectory of foetal processing of light stimuli.
AB - Due to technological advancements in functional brain imaging, foetal brain responses to visual and auditory stimuli is a growing area of research despite being relatively small with much variation between research laboratories. A number of inconsistencies between studies are, nonetheless, present in the literature. This article aims to explore the potential contribution of methodological factors to variation in reports of foetal neural responses to external stimuli. Some of the variation in reports can be explained by methodological differences in aspects of study design, such as brightness and wavelength of light source. In contrast to visual foetal processing, auditory foetal processing has been more frequently investigated and findings are more consistent between different studies. This is an early preview of an emerging field with many articles reporting small sample sizes with techniques that are yet to be replicated. We suggest areas for improvement for the field as a whole, such as the standardisation of stimulus delivery and a more detailed reporting of methods and results. This will improve our understanding of foetal functional response to light and sound. We suggest that enhanced technology will allow for a more reliable description of the developmental trajectory of foetal processing of light stimuli.
KW - Foetus
KW - Visual perception
KW - Auditory perception
KW - fMRI
KW - fMEG
U2 - 10.1016/j.dcn.2015.04.002
DO - 10.1016/j.dcn.2015.04.002
M3 - Journal article
VL - 13
SP - 43
EP - 52
JO - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
JF - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
SN - 1878-9293
ER -