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How the environment both prenatal and postnatal plays a role in regulating the genetic information that the child inherits

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How the environment both prenatal and postnatal plays a role in regulating the genetic information that the child inherits

The prenatal period includes the time from conceiving to birth, while postnatal is the time after birth. The environment influences the development of the fetus and child, respectively, during these periods. In this case, the situation would not change the underlying genetic code, but it could affect gene expression- the manner genes work. For this reason, during the prenatal period, environmental aspects like drugs, food, and exposure to toxins could enhance epigenetic alterations by changing the manner molecules bind to DNA (Center, n.d). Consequently, the aspects could alter the structure of the proteins around the DNA. The genes provide the instructions for the maintenance and development of the body, and the epigenome interacts with the DNA to suppress or activate the expression of specific genes. Therefore, if the mother exposes the fetus to such environmental factors during pregnancy, they could influence the type of genetic information the fetus inherits. They could regulate the information inherited by the fetus since they could alter gene expression that either suppresses or activates certain genes that carry different information for the development and maintenance of the body.

On the other hand, the embryo develops, and the cells differentiate into distinctive types such as muscle and bones. As these cells specialize, the epigenetic tags activate and silences particular genes resulting to further specialization of the cells. Gradually each cell type takes on an exceptional epigenetic profile (Center, n.d). During the postnatal period, the symbols from the environment act on the epigenome to activate or silence various genes. For this reason, environmental aspects, for example, diet could influence the epigenome that affects the expression of genes on the developing child. Since the genes carry the instructions for the information utilized to maintain or develop the body; hence the environmental aspects determine the genetic information inherited by the child during the postnatal period.

Potential Advantages of these types of genetic-environment Interactions with a child

The genetic, environmental interactions have various advantages to the child. For instance, exposure to a particular diet would make the epigenome suppresses or activates the expression of specific genes resulting in cell differentiation (Center, n.d). In this case, cell differentiation helps the child’s cells become more efficient on certain tasks conserving more energy due to performing one task and improve on it faster. The genetic, environmental interactions help in the suppression of certain genes and activation of others that help the child develop appropriately based on the surrounding environment hence promotes survival and development.

Epigenetic Modifications and Predictive-adaptive Responses

Epigenetic modifications correlate with predictive-adaptive responses thought by Murphy Paul by showing how environmental factors during and after prenatal and postnatal periods contribute to shaping the development of the fetus and child, respectively (Paul, 2011). The two videos explain how the environment influences child development from conception, birth, and development later in life. For example, both use food as one of the environmental aspects that shapes the ways a fetus learns and adapts to the surrounding during pregnancy and after birth.

How the Predictive-Adaptive Responses Might not be Adaptive

The child might fail to adapt to the predictive-adaptive responses when they get into the world they never prepared themselves for during the pregnancy period. For example, when a pregnant woman experiences instances of starvation, the child adapts to survive on minimum calories daily and refocuses his or her energy on vital organs such as the brain depriving other organs of the energy. When born to a world of abundant food, the child encounters an environment full of aspects he or she never prepared for hence hindering the adaption to predictive-adaptive aspects learned in the womb (Paul, 2011). In this perspective, the abundance of the food serves as the drawback to the predicted and adaptive response anticipated by the child during the pregnancy period.

Examples of perceptual Behaviours Fetuses Learn before Birth.

The fetus learns about his or her mother’s voice before birth. The sounds from the environment of the mother travel to the fetus through the abdominal tissue and the amniotic fluid around the fetus. The mother’s voices remain muted and muffled, reverberating through the whole body and gets to the fetus instantaneously because the fetus is with the mother throughout daily. The hearing of the voice many times, enables the child to recognize the voice at birth than any other sound (Paul, 2011). One could know such an occurrence through sucking of two different nipples, one with her mother voice and another of a stranger. In this experiment, the baby prefers that of her mother’s voice to that of a stranger. The fetus also learns about tastes and smells in the womb before birth because at seven months of pregnancy, the taste buds of the embryo have fully developed, and the olfactory receptors that enable it to smell functions well.  For this reason, the foods pregnant women find their way to the amniotic fluid always swallowed by the fetus; hence the fetus recalls and prefers such tastes and smells after birth. An experiment where pregnant women took flavored carrot juice during pregnancy and others took water after birth, both babies given the same juice reacted differently. In this case, those whose mothers took the juice during pregnancy preferred the taste and smell, while those whose mothers took water responded to the taste and smelled like yuck.

Correlation between Stress and Aggression in Children

Research shows that besides stress, the medications taken by the mother during pregnancy might bring aggression to children (Clow, 2016). The other aspects include trauma, conduct disorder, impulsivity, injury, frustration, and psychosis, and mood disorders.

My Theory

The theoretical element includes the frequencies of consuming certain foods how they influence the fetus development before and after birth. In this case, the frequency of consuming certain foods serves both as an environmental and genetic aspect that determines the genetic information influenced by the child both in the womb environment and after birth.

Timing of Teratogen

The effect teratogen on a fetus depends on the period of introduction during pregnancy. Genetic variability is another aspect that establishes if a certain teratogen remains harmful to the genetic make-up of the fetus.

The prenatal exposure to different drugs method would not apply because the child might experience different environmental aspects that might change the results of the expected outcomes of the research (Clow, 2016). The other issues that make it challenging include establishing and recording the exact responses of the fetus to environmental aspects during pregnancy. Researchers address these issues by carrying out experiments after the birth of the child using the same elements exposed to the child during pregnancy.

References

Clow, K. A. (2016). Aggression among children and youth: an examination of service allocation for subtypes of aggression.

Center, G. S. (Director). (n.d). Insights From Identical Twins [Motion Picture].

Paul, A. M. (Director). (2011). What We Learn Before We’re Born. [Motion Picture].

 

 

 

 

 

 

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