comments on Seung Yeon Lee project ideas

Seung Yeon Lee wants to develop a product that would be used by pregnant woman to bond with their soon-to-be-born child, through some form of fetal stimulus. One questions we must ask is: who is the audience for this product? The woman? The baby? And, how could we measure this product's usefulness? Of course, we can't ask the fetus to fill out a questionnaire.  We can't determine whether the proposed product would have a beneficial outcome for the baby, because, presumably, any positive impact would not be observable for many years, and, anyway, we can't measure the baby's intelligence or sensitivity before treatment, so there is no way to compare. However, mothers are highly motivated to do things that could provide their child with some advantage, so it is not unlikely that a product that appeals to certain type of parents-to-be.

We next question is: how can we connect with the fetus, who is floating in a sac of liquid?  The idea of using light to stimulate the fetus brain could work. Of course, only a small amount of light will pass through the mother's abdominal wall, and we don't even know if the baby's eyes are open, or if his brain is developed enough to perceive light. Information on this is probably available, so the first step will be to carry out research into fetal development, to determine the best way to do this. After a quick Google search for "fetal sensitivity to light", I found the following:

"..direct fetal light perception may reinforce maternal entraining signals during the prenatal period and therefore be of physiological significance for entrainment of circadian rhythmicity in the fetus."


Developmental Brain Research
Volume 47, Issue 1, 1 May 1989, Pages 151-155


So, it appear that mouse fetuses can perceive light, so we should assume that other mammals will also be able to. 


Next, we should start looking at the ways that lights flashing on and off can stimulate our brains. While there may not be any research about the specific case of human fetuses learning from light stimulus, it is often possible to draw inferences from other, similar cases.