Signs Of Consciousness In Baby Brains From As Early As 5 Months

Anyone who stares into the shining eyes of a baby of any age can sometimes convince themselves that they see great wisdom reflected back at them. That little baby frown which gazes up at us seems to be full of aeons of knowledge, and the fact that they cannot communicate with you in any other way makes you wonder what is going on in that little head.

Research into the any aspect of baby psychology has always been limited. You can not directly ask a little one what they can see, and you have to wait until they are looking where you want. But with new techniques and equipment, scientists can use a harmless electrode cap to monitor the activity of the brain directly. So, instead of having to ask whether a baby can see what is being shown, the electrodes can pick up a signal directly from the visual cortex – the part of your brain towards the back of your head which decodes the visual information and lets us understand what we see.

What Can Babies Actually See?

It is thought that very young babies of around 2 months or so, can not really control the muscles of the eye which help them to focus on objects in front of them. So, in the very early stages, if an object happens to fall into the part of their vision which is in focus, then they can see it. Then from about 3 months, they can start to focus, slowly experimenting with changing the way their muscles work, sometimes in front of and sometimes behind the thing they are trying to look at. This is not a conscious action, of course, but they do start to gain more control over it.

Focus is not the only thing. Their little baby retinas are not quite fully developed until at least four and half to five months. So, even if they can make their eye muscles focus and look at an object, the nerve cells in their retinas are not able to transmit a perfect image to the brain. It is also not confirmed whether a very young baby can see in color.

‘But my baby looks right at me!’ a young mother will exclaim. It is possible that your baby is responding to many different signals from you: Your hairline is very important, as the high contrast between your face and hair is very attractive to a young, developing observer, and she will soon learn to recognize that pattern. She will also be responding to your voice of course, and movement and warm, cozy snuggles. So all the input together adds up to a baby who looks as if they are responding to you when you sit in front of them and hold up their favorite cuddly bunny baby toy.

Isn’t Five Months A Bit Old?

Many parents will read this and say that their young babies respond to them well before five months. For those parents who started to feed their little ones at four months it would have been a very familiar sight when their baby reacted to the food and opened their mouths ready for the ‘aeroplane’.  A baby will also reach out to you or to a favorite toy when it sees you. I think that where they have used the word 'conscious' here, they have used it in a very precise scientific way.

In the experiment scientists showed their subjects a series of very rapid images, some of which included pictures of faces. Then they started to slow down the speed that the images are shown until they spot a reaction. They then monitor whether the person watching the sequence can recognize the face. As soon as someone notices an object – anything at all – there is a signal in the visual cortex at the back of the brain. Then, if this is something recognizable such as a face or something similar, then there is a second signal in the front of the brain where we do all our thinking. In an adult, the image must be seen for at least half a second for it to register as a face which causes a signal in the back visual cortex and one in the frontal cortex. While in a baby, researchers have found, this second slower signal appears if she is shown the face for at least three quarters of second.

Surprising Results

These results have surprised many people. The second signal means that babies are using their memory to link what they see to what they have seen before. People did not expect that. The signal is slower and takes a longer to occur, but it is certainly there.

This is going to trigger interest from two types of researchers: Psychologists would be interested to learn when consciousness first develops. If they have tried this in five month olds, then they can also attempt the same experiment with younger babies. The equipment is completely non-intrusive and does not hurt them at all. They will be able to discover when we first start to take notice of the world, not merely react to it.

Secondly, this new information could be used by developmental scientists. If this can be proved to be a normal stage in baby development, then this technique can be used as a diagnostic tool to find out if a baby is growing and developing as it should.