Beginnings of the Mind

Arnold Gesell of Yale has studied baby behavior so long (since 1911) and so thoroughly that he is generally considered the world's best-informed expert on the child as father to the man. But Dr. Gesell has felt for some time that babyhood is much too late a point at which to begin the study of human behavior. Recently he has been studying the behavior of embryos and fetuses.* This week he published a fascinating report on "the beginnings of the human mind" (The Embryology of Behavior; Harper; $5).

Behavior in the Womb. Since Dr. Gesell 's study method depends on constant observation and movies of his subjects, his attempt to investigate behavior in the womb presented difficulties. He solved the problem by using as subjects prematurely born babies and living embryos and fetuses surgically removed from the womb in emergency operations; at hand was an extensive collection of movies of fetuses by U.S. Anatomist Davenport Hooker. By examining closely their movements and physical makeup, Dr. Gesell got an almost continuous record of human development before normal birth.

P: Four weeks: The embryo, though only a tenth of an inch long, already shows the ground plan of a human being. Blood vessels begin to form. The heart begins to beat.

P: Eight weeks: Now an inch long, the fetus begins to acquire a face, mouth, eyes, ears, legs, arms, the specialized cerebral cortex cells which may mark the beginning of consciousness. At eight and one-half weeks the creature stirs for the first time, can be stimulated to reflex movement of its head and arms by tickling with a hair.

P: Twelve weeks: It rotates its rump, flexes its trunk and neck, begins to develop an elaborate nervous system. At 14 weeks it raises its head and arches its back, rotates its trunk and opens its mouth when its back is tickled (see cut),

P: 16 weeks: It blinks, moves first its upper lip, then its lower lip, swallows, moves its tongue, makes a clenched fist, begins to show individuality in facial features and profile.

P: 20 weeks: It pouts, begins to straighten up, starts exercising its breathing muscles (it inhales liquid instead of air until it is born), becomes so active that its mother begins to feel a fluttering.

P: 24 weeks: It hiccups, opens its eyes, is capable of a thin wail if born prematurely (but lives only a few hours).

P: 28 weeks: If prematurely delivered now, it may live. Wrinkled as a crone, it drowses and yawns, never really wakes or sleeps soundly, sucks weakly, is capable of a faint squeak, grunt, bleat or wail.

P: 36 weeks: It cries lustily when hungry, sleeps deeply, comes wide awake at intervals, takes notice of human faces, looks pleased when caressed, is soothed by handling, looks expectant when its bib is tucked in.

P: 40 weeks: At this point, the birth date of. a full-term baby, the new baby and a prematurely born baby conceived at the same time behave much alike, except that the latter, from practice, is slightly more efficient. After four weeks the normal and the premature babies are on a par.

Education or Just Growth? Dr. Gesell believes that all this throws a good deal of light on mental development. Much of what has been considered learning, he thinks, actually has nothing to do with education but is a natural, inevitable process of mental growth, progressing by predetermined stages independently of the environment. Thus, for an infant, he points out, banging invariably comes before poking, nouns before prepositions. And for a premature baby, the art of sleeping and waking, which is controlled by the brain, is developed not through experience but by the growing maturity of the mind.

As excited as a man standing on the threshold of a new world, Dr. Gesell thinks his pioneering study may lead to explanations of some of the "fundamental riddles of science"; e.g., the nature of life, the meaning of genius, etc. Says he, quoting Samuel Coleridge: "This history of a man for the nine months preceding his birth would probably be far more interesting and contain events of far greater moment than all the three score and ten years that follow it."

-*For eight weeks after conception, a human being is called an embryo; from then until birth, a fetus.

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