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- Development in the womb has been hard to monitor
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- Doctors have been able to show that babies can hear music
before birth after observing foetal brain activity directly for the first
time.
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- The discovery will allow them to monitor development
using a special type of brain scan, known as functional magnetic resonance
imaging.
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- In the past, doctors were only able to judge development
indirectly by looking for physical movement in response to stimulation.
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- But using a new technique they were able to detect a
striking increase in brain activity, when music was played to babies in
the womb.
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- Activity
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- In a study to develop the technique, three pregnant women
were given a scan.
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- Beforehand, they were asked to record a nursery rhyme.
This was played down a tube to near the mother's abdomen for 15 seconds,
followed by 15 seconds silence.
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- The recording was played in this way 18 times, during
which the babies' brain activity was measured - the increase in activity
was noted in two of the three babies.
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- The study was performed by researchers at Nottingham
University and details of its progress were published in The Lancet medical
journal.
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- Dr Penny Gowland, a physics lecturer at the university,
told BBC News Online it was the first time an unborn child's brain activity
had been directly observed.
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- "So far all we've done is shown that we're able
to do it," she said.
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- However, since the paper was sent to the Lancet, she
said, the team had tested the technique on more babies and had a similar
success rate.
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- Monitoring development
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- "What we want to go on to do is to study normal
brain development, and set a baseline for what normal brain activity is
in the foetus."
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- This would include looking at how babies develop habits
while they are in the womb.
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- "You know how some people say their baby always
kicks when the music for Eastenders comes on? Well we want to see whether
the baby responds the same after hearing the music for a week or differently.
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- "Ultimately we're interested in seeing what happens
in compromised pregnancies - pregnancies where the baby's not growing properly."
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- Usually the brain is protected so it grows normally and
the body suffers. But in severe cases the brain can be affected, and this
is thought to account for 60% to 90% of cases of cerebral palsy.
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- "So we're interested in seeing how the brain function
is altered in these compromised pregnancies - anatomically and functionally
now," Dr Gowland said.
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- Legal importance
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- This information could prove of the utmost importance
in future, as a number of High Court cases have revolved on the question
of whether hospital staff were responsible for a child suffering cerebral
palsy.
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- One recent case produced a damages payout of £2.35m.
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- The new scanning technique could in future rule out doubt
as to whether the condition was developed in the womb or during birth,
although this is not the main reason it was developed, Dr Gowland said.
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