Links between fetal movements and musculoskeletal malformation

A team of researchers with Imperial College London and Great Ormond Street Hospital, both in the U.K., has found that monitoring fetal movements in pregnant women can help in detecting fetal musculoskeletal malformations.

A kicking baby is one of the milestones of a healthy pregnancy, but as the researchers note, few investigations have been conducted into what actually occurs in the womb as the fetus grows and begins moving around.

Researchers analyzed MRI scans from patients which allowed them to create models of fetal movement. The models produced animated representations of a fetus inside the uterus as it stretched, kicked and moved in other ways, allowing the team to track how much force the fetus was exerting on its environment.

They found that a fetus is able to exert up to 4 kilograms of force against the walls of the uterus at around 30 weeks, the peak time for fetal activity. After that, fetal force was reduced as the fetus found itself with less room to maneuver due to its increasing size.

The team also found that kicking was a form of exercise, helping the growing fetus develop proper muscle and bone structures. They also found that even after the fetus had reduced room for movement, fetal kicking was still important because the stress helped leg and arm joints to develop properly.

The researchers report that fetal movement is critical for normal development of bones and joints. These last findings proved to be particularly useful, the team notes, because a lack of movement, whether kicking or otherwise, could predict musculoskeletal malformations after birth.
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Development of brain networks

According to new research, the brains of smart people are wired differently, it allows them to absorb important facts quickly – while blocking out irrelevant information. Scientists used MRI scans on many volunteers to shed light on the nature of intelligence. They had already identified areas of the brain that control IQ and now they have uncovered the mechanism behind it. Researchers said it is possible for people to make themselves more intelligent with brain training games.

Researchers discovered that regions interact more closely in brainy individuals – while others disconnect themselves. In more intelligent people, certain regions are clearly more strongly involved in the exchange of information between different 'sub networks' of neurons. This enables important information to be communicated faster, and more efficiently. On the other hand, the researchers also identified areas that are disconnected, or 'de-coupled', from the rest of the brain in brighter people.
They believe this results in better protection against distracting and irrelevant material.

It is possible that due to their biological predispositions, some individuals develop brain networks that favour intelligent behaviours or more challenging cognitive tasks. However, the frequent use of the brain for cognitively challenging tasks may positively influence the development of brain networks. Smart thinking requires various portions of the brain working together like different parts of an engine.

Differences in academic success and professional careers are attributed to a considerable degree to cognitive abilities. Higher level thinking are rooted in the patterns of integration among parts of the brain called functional modules.It combined the brain scans from the participants with an analysis of mathematical graphs of their networks of neurons to come up with the first neurobiological basis of human intelligence.

 The two brain regions involved in the cognitive processing of 'task relevant' information - the anterior insula and the anterior cingulate cortex - are connected more efficiently to the rest of the brain. Another brain region, the junction area between temporal and parietal cortex that has been related to the shielding of thoughts against irrelevant information, is less strongly connected to the rest of the network.

The different topological embedding of these regions into the brain network could make it easier for smarter persons to differentiate between important and irrelevant information – which would be advantageous for many cognitive challenges. This is similar to a social network which consists of multiple sub-networks, for example: families, or circles of friends. Within these sub-networks or modules, the members of one family are more strongly interconnected than they are with people from other families or circles of friends.

Human brain is functionally organised in a very similar way. There are sub-networks of brain regions – modules that are more strongly interconnected among themselves while they have weaker connections to brain regions from other modules. Researchers examined whether the role of specific brain regions for communication within and among brain modules varies with individual differences in intelligence- whether a specific brain region supports the information exchange within their more than information exchange with other families, and how this relates to individual differences in intelligence.
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