In the womb, you learned very, very fast indeed. In spurts of activity, your tiny body moved rapidly. Throughout this frenzied movement, your neural networks were at once being formed and pruned. The formation of your neural networks was the creation of a large number of links between a large number of neurones.
Each neurone was just one single cell among many millions of other neurones. Each had many hundreds of tiny little tendrils extending from it, each capable of meeting and connecting with the ends of other tendrils of other neurones. The resultant web of neurones, all connected to one another, is what now makes up your brain and spinal cord. The more connections you have, the higher your IQ. Somewhere in all that complexity is a simple, primitive imprint of your life in the womb.
Now all this may sound a bit far-fetched for a tiny creature the size of a bean growing rapidly in half a wine-glass full of amniotic fluid, but this is indeed what was going on. When you were that size, all those years ago, your neurones were growing at such a rate that you were much, much more sensitive to your environment than you are now, and enormous quantities of information about what was going on around you must have come pouring in.
