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Published on: April 19, 2017
Perceptual Awareness in Human Infants: What is the Evidence?
1Université Paris-Saclay.
Insights
Investigating infant consciousness reveals that perceptual awareness likely emerges in the second half of the first year. Early learning and brain development suggest potential for consciousness even earlier.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Philosophy of Mind
Background:
- Understanding infant consciousness is crucial for developmental science, yet research is limited by a lack of experimental paradigms for preverbal infants.
- While parents intuitively believe infants are conscious, scientific evidence remains scarce.
- Recent studies indicate complex learning and structured brain development in infants, challenging traditional views.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review evidence for early perceptual awareness in infants.
- To propose a framework using global workspace theory to systematically investigate infant consciousness.
- To establish benchmarks for conscious perception in infants based on adult brain signatures.
Main Methods:
- Overview of recent behavioral and brain imaging studies on infant learning and brain structure.
- Application of global workspace theory's signatures of conscious perception.
- Analysis of existing literature to infer the emergence of perceptual awareness.
Main Results:
- Infants exhibit complex learning and structured brains early in development, providing indirect evidence for perceptual awareness.
- Global workspace theory suggests conscious perception may exist in the latter half of the first year of life.
- Evidence for consciousness before 5 months is limited, and the possibility of pre-term conscious perception remains an open question.
Conclusions:
- Perceptual awareness in infants is likely present in the second half of the first year, supported by brain signatures.
- Further research is needed to solidify evidence for consciousness before 5 months and pre-term.
- Advances in neuroimaging and increased research interest will enhance understanding of early consciousness.
Abstract:
Perceptual awareness in infants during the first year of life is understudied, despite the philosophical, scientific, and clinical importance of understanding how and when consciousness emerges during human brain development. Although parents are undoubtedly convinced that their infant is conscious, the lack of adequate experimental paradigms to address this question in preverbal infants has been a hindrance to research on this topic. However, recent behavioral and brain imaging studies have shown that infants are engaged in complex learning from an early age and that their brains are more structured than traditionally thought. I will present a rapid overview of these results, which might provide indirect evidence of early perceptual awareness and then describe how a more systematic approach to this question could stand within the framework of global workspace theory, which identifies specific signatures of conscious perception in adults. Relying on these brain signatures as a benchmark for conscious perception, we can deduce that it exists in the second half of the first year, whereas the evidence before the age of 5 months is less solid, mainly because of the paucity of studies. The question of conscious perception before term remains open, with the possibility of short periods of conscious perception, which would facilitate early learning. Advances in brain imaging and growing interest in this subject should enable us to gain a better understanding of this important issue in the years to come.
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