Echoes from the Womb: Insights into Early Resonance and the Emergence of Multisensory Integration

The prenatal period represents a crucial stage in which the basic architecture of sensory and social functions begins to take shape. We investigated two complementary aspects of early human development, combining behavioural and neurovascular approaches to explore how prenatal processes contribute to the emergence of integrative and relational capacities.
In Study 1, we examined whether maternal yawning could modulate fetal behaviour, a potential marker of early 'contagion'. Thirty-six pregnant women underwent ultrasound video recordings while maternal yawns occurred spontaneously. Fetal and maternal facial kinematics were analysed through both manual coding and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network models. Results showed that fetuses yawned significantly more following maternal yawns, revealing selective responsiveness and shared kinematic signatures between maternal and fetal movements. These findings suggest that fetal yawning may index an early form of behavioural resonance and co-regulation, possibly mediated by mechanical or neuroendocrine pathways.
Study 2 explores the neurovascular correlates of multisensory processing by assessing changes in pulsatile blood flow in the anterior, middle, and posterior cerebral arteries during tactile and visual stimulation. By comparing pre-, during-, and post-stimulation phases, this study aims to identify early vascular markers of emerging multisensory integration during fetal life. At the moment, we recruited 33 pregnant women.
Together, these studies provide converging behavioral and physiological evidence that the roots of perceptual and social life emerge before birth, through the early interaction of sensory and motor systems shaping human development.

Join at: imt.lu/aula2