This current year marks the 30^th anniversary of the Perinatology Research Laboratory where basic animal research into mammalian reproduction has been underway since 1970. The off-campus research facility, featuring a 4600-square-foot lab, was completed under the direction of UF’s first chairman of obstetrics and gynecology -–Dr. Harry Prystowsky—who included the building in a visionary plan for broadening the Department’s mission beyond patient care and education.

During succeeding years, a number of interdisciplinary research programs were undertaken in conjunction with visiting obstetricians and faculty and students in the Departments of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Pediatrics, Physiology, Otolaryngology, Materials Sciences and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, the School of Music, and with collaborators in several national and foreign health centers.

Over the course of the Laboratory’s history the research has been supported by over $3 million granted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, National Institute of Drug Abuse, and National Center of Nursing Research. Additional generous contributions have been made by the University's Division of Sponsored Research and the Children's Miracle Network.

Currently, research is focused on neurochemical features of the developing brain, fetal sleep state and brain blood flow, and how exposure to music, speech and other sounds and vibrations are perceived and affect the fetus.

Click the picture on the left to see images of the glucose utilization of the fetal brain.

 

 

Click here to see patterns of fetal electrocortical activity, eye movements and brain blood flow during the transition from REM Sleep to Quiet Sleep.

 

Click here to listen to a clip of "We Are the Boys From Old Florida" as recorded in air, inside the uterus of a sheep, and from the fetal inner ear (cochlear microphonic).

 

 

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