PSY 220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Thalidomide, Asteroid Family, Prenatal Development
23 Feb 2017
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Prenatal development: period of development and changes that transform a fertilized egg into a newborn human. Typically a 38 week period, with 3 stages: zygote (germinal period) weeks 1-2, embryo weeks 3-8, fetus. Increase in size and body systems begin to function. Important structures include: the cerebral cortex: the wrinkled surface of the brain that regulates many important human behaviors. Age of viability occurs between 23-25 weeks and fetus has a chance to survive. Begin to detect fetal behavior: heart rate and movement in sync @ 36 weeks. Better regulation of behaviors (alertness, attention) @ 2 weeks post- birth. Chronic stress: animal studies show maternal stress linked to smaller offspring who are prone to physical or behavior problems. Many diseases pass through the placenta directly and attack the fetus (others attack later: aids can infect prenatally, during birth, or through breast-feeding) Pote(cid:374)tially da(cid:374)gerous drugs are (cid:374)ot li(cid:373)ited to (cid:272)o(cid:272)ai(cid:374)e or other (cid:862)hard drugs(cid:863), (cid:271)ut also caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, aspirin.
