Do foetuses communicate? Foetal responses to interactive versus non-interactive maternal voice and touch: An exploratory analysis.

The main aim of this study was to uncover any evidence for communicative engagement in foetuses. Taking into consideration the continuity of development pre- and postnatally, the social responsiveness of the newborn baby and the development of sensorimotor competence in the foetus, it is plausible to assume that communicative readiness develops before birth. During the interactive and noninteractive applications of three conditions: the mother's voice, the touch of her abdomen and a control condition, foetuses' (N = 12, 2-33 gestational weeks) behaviours were recorded through 4D scanning using Voluson S10 ultrasound and coded frame-by-frame. Foetuses displayed differential right-hand self-touch behaviours in response to the mother's touch. There was a reduction of this movement when the mother was touching her abdomen, compared to when the mother was talking or during the baseline conditions. There was also a reduction in right-hand touch responses during the interactive touch condition but not during interactive talk condition. A similar result was found with regards to right-hand face touch responses. Foetuses displayed a longer duration of mouth opening in the interactive talk condition compared to the noninteractive talk condition. During the first 60 s, foetuses showed a significant increase in sucking behaviours during the interactive touch condition, compared to all other conditions. This is the first study to compare interactive versus noninteractive engagement of the foetus. The findings of this study suggest that foetuses in the third trimester discriminate between interactive and non-interactive external stimuli and respond to contingent interactions.

Activating health goals reduces (increases) hedonic evaluation of food brands for people who harbor highly positive (negative) affect toward them.

Associations of pleasure and fun with junk foods have the potential to create considerable challenges for efforts to improve diets. The aim of this research was to determine whether activating health goals had the potential to exploit mixed motivations (i.e., health and pleasure) that people have related to food, and subsequently strip junk foods of the expected pleasure derived from them. In study 1, 98 participants evaluated a soft drink brand after being primed (not primed) for health. In study 2, 93 participants evaluated a presweetened breakfast cereal brand after being primed (not primed) for health. In both studies, participants who harbored highly positive feelings for the food brands devalued their hedonic judgments of them when they were primed for health. However, in an unexpected result, participants in both studies who harbored highly negative feelings for the food brands revalued their hedonic judgments of them (i.e., increased the favorability) when they were primed for health. Thus, increasing health salience is only effective in decreasing expected pleasure derived from junk foods for people who harbor positive affect toward junk food brands, and is likely counterproductive for people who harbor negative affect toward junk food brands.