Final answer:
The early environment and maternal signals have a significant impact on our biology and behavior. Maternal signals can influence the fear or attraction response of infants, and early interactions shape language and communication development.
Step-by-step explanation:
The early environment, including maternal signals, plays a crucial role in shaping our development. Research has shown that a fetus whose mother faces stressors like famine or infections during pregnancy receives different environmental signals compared to a fetus that has an appropriate food supply and is not exposed to infections. These early environmental experiences can have long-lasting effects on an individual's biology and behavior.
Animal research has also demonstrated that the presence or absence of the mother can affect the fear or attraction response of infant rats to certain odor cues. This suggests that maternal signals can act as a switch between learning fear and attraction in infancy.
Furthermore, babies start to develop language and communication skills before birth. They recognize their mother's voice, can discriminate between the language spoken by their mother and other languages, and show preferences for faces that synchronize with audible language. These early interactions and experiences help shape their language and communication development.