Pregnant Women Also Watch TV for 2

Unborn children are so in tune with their mothers that they get bad vibes when mom watches a sad movie, and are perked up by an uplifting flick. That’s the conclusion of Japanese researchers, who plopped one group of expectant mothers in front of The Sound of Music, and another in front of a tearjerker. In order to keep the fetuses from cheating, the mothers wore headphones so no audible sound could reach them.

The result, the Daily Mail reports, is that the fetuses of mothers who watched the happy clip waved their arms about more than normal, as seen through ultrasound scans. While their mothers watched the downer, babies were much more still than normal. The researchers surmise the change in behavior is due to indirect hormonal impulses triggered by the mother’s emotion. (More fetus stories.)