"The impulse to be social is so deep-seated in human consciousness that it’s even evident in the womb, suggests a new study on the interaction of twins just a few months after conception.
Twin pregnancies offer “the unique opportunity to explore social behavior before birth,” wrote researchers led by psychologist Umberto Castiello of Italy’s University of Padova. “Newborns come into the world wired to socially interact. Is a propensity to socially oriented action already present before birth?”
The researchers used ultrasound recorders to make three-dimensional videos of five pairs of twins, once at 14 weeks and again at 18 weeks. By the 14th week, they were already reaching for each other. This was even more pronounced by the 18th week, when fetuses touched each other more often than themselves.
Though some contact is inevitable between two growing bodies sharing a confined space, kinematic analysis showed that fetuses used distinct gestures when touching each other, rather than touching themselves or uterine walls. Their hands lingered.
“Performance of movements towards the twin is not accidental,” wrote the researchers. Their findings were published Oct. 7 in Public Library of Science One.
Earlier research had shown that within hours of birth, newborns already imitate the facial gestures of other people, indicating an inborn capacity for social behavior. The researchers call this “the social pre-wiring hypothesis.”
The findings “epitomize the congenital propensity for sociality of primates in general and of humans in particular,” wrote the researchers. Put another way, it’s human nature to reach out and touch someone."
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