Laterality of foetal self-touch in relation to maternal stress

Reissland, Nadja and Aydin, Ezra and Francis, Brian and Exley, Kendra (2015) Laterality of foetal self-touch in relation to maternal stress. Laterality, 20 (1). pp. 82-94. ISSN 1357-650X

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Abstract

This longitudinal observational study investigated whether foetuses change their hand preference with gestational age, and also examined the effects of maternal stress on lateralized foetal self-touch. Following ethical approval, fifteen healthy foetuses (eight girls and seven boys) were scanned four times from 24 to 36 weeks gestation. Self-touch behaviours which resulted in a touch of the foetal face/head were coded in 60 scans for 10 min and analysed in terms of frequency of the foetuses using left and right hands to touch their face. The joint effects of foetal age, stress and sex on laterality were assessed. We modelled the proportion of right self-touches for each foetal scan using a generalized linear mixed model, taking account of the repeated measures design. There was substantial variability in hand preference between foetuses. However, there was no significant increase in the proportion of right-handed touches with foetal age. No sex differences in handedness were identified. However, maternally reported stress level was significantly positively related to foetal left-handed self-touches (odds ratio 0.915; p

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Laterality
Additional Information:
The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Laterality, 20 (1), 2015, © Informa Plc
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200
Subjects:
?? foetusself-touchlaterality handedness maternal stress foetal agepsychology(all) ??
ID Code:
69916
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
08 Jul 2014 09:56
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
27 Feb 2024 01:00