Kachewar Sushil Ghanshyam, Gandage Siddappa Gurubalappa
Department of Radio-diagnosis, Rural Medical College, Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences LONI, At Post-LONI, Rahata, Ahmednagar - 413 736, Maharashtra, India.
Mens Sana Monogr. 2012 Jan;10(1):98-108. doi: 10.4103/0973-1229.85495.
The unborn healthy foetus is looked upon as a blessing by one and all. A plethora of thoughts arise in the brains of expectant parents. But what goes on in the brain of the yet unborn still remains a mystery. 'Foetal mind' is a reflection of functions of its organs of sense, an instrument of knowledge that may even be reduced to machine to demonstrate the effect of sense organs and brain contact. Testimony to this fact are the various waveform patterns obtained non-invasively from the foetal Middle Cerebral Artery (MCA) by using Colour Doppler Ultrasound. Our study, conducted for evaluating the foetal MCA in a rural obstetric population in Maharashtra, India, explains how the MCA - a major artery supplying foetal brain, can give abundant information about foetal heart and foetal stress. When only the foetal heart is stressed by the presence of arrhythmias or ectopic beats, these changes are manifest in the foetal MCA velocity waveform pattern as seen on Colour Doppler study. When the entire foetus is under stress, as in cases of intra uterine growth retardation (IUGR), changes again manifest in the foetal MCA velocity waveform pattern and are designated as the foetal Brain Sparing Effect. Thus scientific evaluation of foetal MCA waveform can objectively demonstrate that the overtly non-communicating foetal brain indeed remains an internal organ of sense and a vital instrument of knowledge to clarify the various effects of sense organs and brain contact. Although the brain parenchyma or cerebral metabolism has not been studied here, cerebral vessels serve as a window to cerebral metabolism, as auto regulatory function of brain leads to changes in haemodynamics of cerebral vessels. Also, like other vessels, MCA mirrors foetal distress and IUGR; but unlike other vessels, e.g. the umbilical or uterine artery, which show these changes in the form of reduction or even reversal of diastolic flow, MCA shows an increase in diastolic component due to brain sparing effect. The unique connection between physical changes in the foetal heart, brain and mental operations are thus critically clarified to some extent, and this helps untangle and comprehend the lattice of mental operations. Although this preliminary study has its limitations, it still carries forward the present corpus of knowledge on the strength of its evidential and critical enquiry and helps unravel the concept of foetal consciousness.
未出生的健康胎儿被所有人视为一种福气。准父母们的脑海中会涌现出无数的想法。但尚未出生的胎儿大脑中发生了什么仍然是个谜。“胎儿心智”是其感觉器官功能的一种反映，是一种知识工具，甚至可以简化为机器来展示感觉器官与大脑接触的效果。通过彩色多普勒超声从胎儿大脑中动脉（MCA）无创获取的各种波形模式就是这一事实的证明。我们在印度马哈拉施特拉邦的农村产科人群中进行的评估胎儿MCA的研究，解释了MCA（一条为胎儿大脑供血的主要动脉）如何能够提供有关胎儿心脏和胎儿应激的丰富信息。当胎儿心脏因心律失常或异位搏动而受到压力时，这些变化会在彩色多普勒研究中看到的胎儿MCA速度波形模式中表现出来。当整个胎儿处于压力之下时，如在宫内生长受限（IUGR）的情况下，变化也会再次在胎儿MCA速度波形模式中表现出来，并被称为胎儿脑保护效应。因此，对胎儿MCA波形的科学评估可以客观地证明，表面上不进行交流的胎儿大脑确实仍然是一个感觉内部器官和一种重要的知识工具，以阐明感觉器官与大脑接触的各种影响。虽然这里没有研究脑实质或脑代谢，但脑血管是脑代谢的一个窗口，因为大脑的自动调节功能会导致脑血管血流动力学的变化。此外，与其他血管一样，MCA反映胎儿窘迫和IUGR；但与其他血管不同，例如脐动脉或子宫动脉，它们以舒张期血流减少甚至逆转的形式表现出这些变化，MCA由于脑保护效应而表现出舒张期成分增加。胎儿心脏、大脑的物理变化与心理活动之间的独特联系因此在一定程度上得到了批判性的阐明，这有助于理清和理解心理活动的脉络。尽管这项初步研究有其局限性，但它仍然凭借其证据性和批判性探究的力量推进了当前的知识体系，并有助于解开胎儿意识的概念。
