There is still a big discussion of nature vs nurture. Did not follow the subject you mention but many things can be in fact just learned.

Also, as mentioned previously, there is more than the DNA at work - like at least epigenetics, but I guess the fetus is influenced a lot by the mother's body.

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vbezhenar 16 hours ago | parent | next [-]

With humans, we can even imagine that mother body teaches child brains via placenta or something (I don't think that's what happening, but whatever).

However think about birds. They lay eggs. So there's no direct connection between mother body and child body. Yet it works somehow...

	▲	vladms 13 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The yolk (used directly in the embryos development) is generated during 10 days (https://www.purinamills.com/chicken-feed/education/detail/ho...). This could give the opportunity to pack a lot of "indirect information" to be used by the future embryo. Regarding "teaching" the child while in the womb, it is exactly what is happening, see: https://www.americanscientist.org/article/baby-talk I do agree that some organisms will transmit more "information" (via multiple ways, chemically, mechanical, etc.) than others (like maybe the birds) but the fact is the DNA is just a part of the development process and even if maybe it is "the first one", it will not "pack" everything.

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darkwater 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Epigenetics and mother's body influence feel - to me - like magic more or less the same. And the nature vs nurture regarding tastes developed either early or later on, well, as a father of 2 siblings who are radically different in certain tastes, I don't really know where I would have nurtured them into being different. I try to introspect a lot on that, maybe we did something but honestly... I don't think so.