Immobility reaction at birth in newborn infant

Rousseau, Pierre; Francotte, Jacques; M, Fabbricatore; Frischen, Caroline; Duchateau, Delphine; Perin, Marie; Gauthier, Jean-Marie; Lahaye, Willy

doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2014.05.001

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…WHO Guidelines consider that, rather than immediately at birth, first breath can physiologically occur up to 60 s after birth[ 4 ]. This delay varies inter-individually, averaging to about 20 s and has been well-documented by several reports [ 5 , 6 ].…”

Section: Main Textsupporting

confidence: 55%

Something must happen before first breath

Polese

Fagioli²,

Virgili

et al. 2021

BMC Med Ethics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Definition and concept of the ‘beginning of human life’ are weakened by co-existing contrasting hypotheses based on humanistic or religious beliefs rather than scientific foundations. This plethora of conceptually distant views have important common concerns in different fields of science and shape, in turn, several societal aspects including laws related, for instance, to inheritance eligibility or abortion, end-of-life care and euthanasia, and reproductive technology. Also, they are fundamental to evaluate opportunity for resuscitation vs. palliative care in extremely preterm infants. In this article, we address one of the most common tenets in medicine: the acceptance that human life starts with first breath, even though several events are well-documented to take place before its occurrence. Main text Several studies show how pivotal physiological events take place before first breath. Evidence of a number of neurological events occurring before first breath opens the way to the primacy of the Central Nervous System, given its immediate extra-uterine activation at birth. This activation eventually sets specific physiological conditions that allow the complex sequence of events determining the muscle activity associated with the influx of air in the lung and the settling of a continuous and successful extra-uterine respiration. We would like to invite the scientific community to endorse a clear-cut position against the paradigm of ‘first breath’ as the beginning of life. Herein, we also assume how, a still undefined, yet possibly specific quid in the external environment triggers further physiological response in newborns. Better understanding of the critical events that occur at the beginning of human life is likely to cause great concern and expectations in scientists, researchers and physicians working in the domain of brain, and its physiology, and mental health. Conclusions The comparison between beliefs and evidence-based observations generates confusion, misperceptions and false expectations in society, hence, in the scientific and medical community. Different and more solid alternatives about the carachterization of the ‘beginning of human life’ are indeed available and require to be explored and defined.

show abstract

Section: Main Textsupporting

confidence: 55%

Something must happen before first breath

Polese

Fagioli²,

Virgili

et al. 2021

BMC Med Ethics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This does not mean, however, that the reaction itself is pathologic. This is an important distinction which is increasingly being accepted (Porges 2003;Rousseau et al 2014). There is, in this regard, an interesting parallelism to the fight-and-flight reflex which also seems to figure prominently in various psychopathological states, from panic attacks to night terrors.…”

Section: Out Of the Closetmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The study by Rousseau et al (2014) showed, for the first time, that TI is a part of normal neonatal development. 53 But what is the developmental fate of this ancestral reflex?…”

Section: An Ontogenetic Sketchmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…5 Most relevantly for our purposes, such reactions have also been observed in human children. Rousseau et al (2014), for example, found that 8 out of 31 newborns showed significant immobilization reactions at birth. 6 The main features of this 3 One example is the startle/orienting response.…”

Section: The Eye Of the Tigermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two examples of such reflexes are TI and IS. Both these reflexes are prevalent during infancy, suppress aggressive behaviors and avoidance maneuvers during stressful encounters, and include an intentionality detector which works through the monitoring of eye movements (Prestrude 1977;Hennig 1977;McCarthy et al 1991;Porter et al 1998;Guastella et al 2008;Domes et al 2013;Danevova et al 2013;Rousseau et al 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Theory of Mind: Towards an Evolutionary Theory

Tsoukalas

2017

Evolutionary Psychological Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Theory of mind is an important mental faculty. However, despite almost half a century of research, we only have a limited understanding of its evolutionary past. The present article proposes a novel hypothesis on the origin of this unique human capacity. According to this hypothesis theory of mind descended from two, closely related, defensive reactions, namely tonic immobility and immobilization stress. Both reactions are conserved in many vertebrate species and are highly prevalent in immature individuals. They are produced by a combination of manual handling and restraint (common in many nursing activities) and implicated in the management of stressful encounters. Most importantly, they have been shown to facilitate eye-contact, gaze-following, and intentional attributions. These traits, and several others detailed in the text, make them prime candidates in the search for the origin of theory of mind. The article presents conceptual arguments and empirical facts in support of this hypothesis.

show abstract