Project Content:
Pregnancy is an exciting time, both for you and for your child, who develops new abilities with every passing week. This is particularly true during the third trimester, when the sensory systems have matured sufficiently to process information from the surrounding environment.
However, it remains unclear whether processes known as “multisensory integration” are already taking place at this early stage. This phenomenon describes how simultaneous stimuli from different sensory modalities are experienced as a single, complex, and coherent perception. Multisensory integration is fundamental to how we perceive our environment in everyday life—not through a single sensory channel, but simultaneously through multiple senses. It forms the basis for the development of a representation of one’s own body. Previous studies have shown that newborns already possess multisensory perception abilities. However, it is not yet known at which developmental stage this ability emerges. To investigate this, we measure the magnetic brain activity of fetuses while they are exposed to external stimuli (sounds and light)—both unisensory and multisensory.
The fetus’s magnetic brain activity is measured using fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG). This is a non-invasive, painless, and entirely passive technique—meaning that neither you nor your child will be exposed to a magnetic field or any other form of radiation at any point. During the fetal measurement, an experienced midwife performs an ultrasound scan—both before and after the procedure—to determine the position of your child’s head. During the measurement itself, you sit on the fMEG device with your upper body leaning forward, allowing your abdomen to rest within the sensor array. The measurement takes place at the fMEG Center of the University Hospital Tübingen, which houses one of only two fMEG systems currently in existence worldwide.