By Dave Andrusko

Here's the opening paragraph of the abstract of a remarkable study of twins in utero. Both it and the conclusion from researchers from the University of Padova in Italy are a bit dry, but…

"Newborns come into the world wired to socially interact. Is a propensity to socially oriented action already present before birth? Twin pregnancies provide a unique opportunity to investigate the social pre-wiring hypothesis. Although various types of inter-twins contact have been demonstrated starting from the 11th week of gestation, no study has so far investigated the critical question whether intra-pair contact is the result of motor planning rather then the accidental outcome of spatial proximity."

Conclusion?

"We conclude that performance of movements towards the co-twin is not accidental: already starting from the 14th week of gestation twin foetuses execute movements specifically aimed at the co-twin."

Previous studies have shown that babies start to imitate gestures of people around them within hours of birth, "indicating an inborn capacity for social behavior," according to Gerald Nadal in his review of the study. "The researchers call this 'the social pre-wiring hypothesis.'"

How to investigate? "Studying twins in the womb made it possible to investigate the pre-wired hypothesis and see if socialization was already apparent while still in the womb," writes PhysOrg.com.

The study, led by psychologist Umberto Castiello, demonstrated that twins show evidence that our need to be social appears as early as the 14th week-- just into the second trimester. This illustrates both the remarkable educational properties of four-dimensional ultrasonography and that babies do not come into the world as blank slates.

The team studied five pairs of twins, using four-dimensional ultrasonography to make 3D videos of twins at 14 and 18 weeks of gestation. The twins were taped for 20 minutes at a time.

The technical details need not detain us, but the fascinating conclusions bear repeating. The twins made "a range of contacts including head to head, arm to head and head to arm," PhysOrg.com. "By the time they were at 18 weeks, they touched each other more often than they touched their own bodies, spending up to 30 percent of their time reaching out and stroking their co-twin."

The gestures were distinct, not random, including "tak[ing] as much care when touching their twin's delicate eye region as they did with their own."

Take the time to read the study, which is found at Public Library of Science One. [www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0013199]

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