Prenatal Development of Postnatal Functions

This book shows how, and in what ways, prenatal development serves as a preparation for life after birth. Largely, such explanation stemming from the transnatal continuity theory has been ignored in mainstream developmental psychology. However, since the advent of real-time ultrasonography with humans, and increasingly refined experiements with avian and mammalian species, plausible scenarios linking prenatal and postnatal development are beginning to emerge. One is the theory of fetal programming. Here, the authors provide authoritative reviews of current knowledge regarding continuities and discontinuities between prenatal and postnatal development of brain-behavior relationships across a variety of species, including humans.