Personality is the result of nurture, not nature, suggests study on birds. June 5, 2013 — Personality is not inherited from birth parents says new research on zebra finches.
External factors are likely to play a bigger part in developing the personality of an individual than the genes it inherits from its parents, suggests the study. Researchers at the University of Exeter and the University of Hamburg investigated how personality is transferred between generations. They found that foster parents have a greater influence on the personalities of fostered offspring than the genes inherited from birth parents. Dr Nick Royle from Biosciences at the University of Exeter said: "This is one of the first experiments to show that behaviour can be non-genetically transmitted from parents to offspring.
Our study shows that in zebra finches, personality traits can be transmitted from one generation to another through behaviour not just genetics. " This work was funded by the European Social Fund and the Natural Environment Research Council. ZERO TO THREE: Maternal characteristics, parenting quality, and child behavior problems, NC DOCKS (North Carolina Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship) The Role of Thyroid Hormones in Prenatal and Neonatal Neurological Development—Current Perspectives. FOR YEARS thyroid hormones have been known to be important for normal neonatal brain development, and numerous reviews have covered this topic in depth.
It now also appears that fetal thyroid hormones play an essential role in fetal brain development. In addition, as some placental transport of thyroid hormones has been shown to occur, it is possible that maternal thyroid hormones might influence fetal brain development. II. Exposure to oestrogen prenatally does not ... [J Neuroendocrinol. 2007. What hormones are produced during pregnancy. Fetal Psychology. Psychology Today, October 1998 Source: Psychology Today, Sep/Oct98, Vol. 31 Issue 5, p44, 6p, 4c.
Behaviorally speaking, there's little difference between a newborn baby and a 32-week-old fetus. A new wave of research suggests that the fetus can feel, dream, even enjoy The Cat in the Hat. The abortion debate may never be the same. The scene never fails to give goose bumps: the baby, just seconds old and still dewy from the womb, is lifted into the arms of its exhausted but blissful parents. Not so, declares Janet DiPietro. Armed with highly sensitive and sophisticated monitoring gear, DiPietro and other researchers today are discovering that the real action starts weeks earlier. As if overturning the common conception of infancy weren't enough, scientists are creating a startling new picture of intelligent life in the womb.
By nine weeks, a developing fetus can hiccup and react to loud noises. Fetal Alertness Closer to birth, the fetus sleeps 85 or 90% of the time: the same as a newborn. Pre-natal personality development. Pre-natal personality development Samineh I Shaheem / 2 October 2010 THE TOPIC of personality is incredibly fascinating and has intrigued us for centuries.
We know that both nature and nurture (biological/environmental variables) contribute to who we are. From the way we perceive the world, our study habits, thrill seeking desires, talents and abilities, intelligence levels, psychological disorders and a wide range of other characteristics and traits form as a result of the interaction between genetic composition and life experiences. Psychologists also know that babies are born with clear differences such as patterns of activity, mood and attention span that point to individual temperament being evident from the first days of life. More and more research is being conducted to shed light on this interesting debate. “Behaviour doesn’t begin at birth,” states DiPietro. DiPietro goes on to explain that personality development is highly influenced by the lifestyle choices a mother makes. Does Your Fetus Have a Personality Already? Prenatal Origins of Neurological Development. A Critical Period for Fetus and Mother + Author Affiliations Laura Glynn, Crean School of Health and Life Sciences, Chapman University, One University Drive, Orange, CA 92866 E-mail: lglynn@chapman.edu Abstract A rapidly accumulating literature indicates that the prenatal period must be taken into account if we are to understand development of the central nervous system (CNS) across the life span.
Evidence now suggests that intrauterine signals influence brain structure and affect cognitive function and emotional and physiological stress regulation in the offspring. Article Notes The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. . © Association for Psychological Science 2011. Hormonal regulation of fetal growth. [Horm Res. 2006.