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Baby Faces
30 June 2013

Baby Faces

As adults it’s hard to resist pulling faces at babies to see their reaction. Perhaps surprisingly babies have been practicing pulling faces for weeks before they are even born. A recent study shows that between 24 and 36 weeks gestation healthy infants make spontaneous facial expressions, increasing in complexity and co-ordination as they develop. In the ultrasound scan above, the 32-week infant on the right pulls a distress-like expression. However, it‘s not known if the expressions relate to emotional responses as they will in later life, or are perhaps just the body trialling the use and co-ordination of certain muscles. Knowing more about how facial expressions develop in foetuses could provide early warning of abnormal development or unhealthy in utero conditions.

Written by Mary-Clare Hallsworth

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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