In reply to:
Mm--so, maybe we're pre-disposed for music?
Yes, Jackie. The rhythm of the heart naturally matches a multitude of nursery rhyme rhythms, such as in "Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of wa...ter." Nine months is a long time for the developing human mind to have nestled against that repeating rhythm at various tempos. The creators of nursery rhymes either consciously or unconsciously matched word rhythms to that curiously short-long repetitive rhythm of the heart as Connie has pointed out above.
It would be very interesting to note any changes in in utero behavior when the mother's heartbeat becomes faster, whether she is watching a thriller, for instance, or perhaps is involved in some physical activity in which her heartbeat (at the same rhythm) increases in speed. Such studies have probably already occurred.
I listened to an interview of a mother of either quintuplets or sextuplets say that those babies in utero had become noticeably more active during the periods of time in which she herself had had meals. Interesting. Very, in fact.
Wouldn't it be interesting to know whether fetuses became more focused and even excited when the mother's heartbeat noticeably increased?
