> > Babies Have Self-Awareness From The Minute They're Born > > > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/22/babies-self-awareness_n_4323481.html > > By: By Stephanie Pappas, Senior Writer > Published: 11/21/2013 12:10 PM EST on LiveScience > > With their uncoordinated movements and unfocused eyes, newborns may seem > pretty clueless about the world. But new research finds that from the > minute they are born, babies are well aware of their own bodies. > > Body awareness is an important skill for distinguishing the self from > others, and failure to develop body awareness may be a component of some > disorders such as > autism<http://www.livescience.com/34704-autism-symptoms-diagnosis-and-treatments.html>. > > But little research has been done to find out when humans start to > understand that their body is their own. > > To determine babies' awareness of their bodies, the researchers took a > page from studies on adults. In a famous illusion, people can be convinced > that a rubber hand is their > own<http://www.livescience.com/34776-virtual-body-merges-with-real-body.html>if > they see the hand stroked while their own hand, hidden from view, is > simultaneously stroked. > > These studies show that information from multiple senses — vision and > touch, in this case — are important for body awareness, said Maria Laura > Filippetti, a doctoral student at the Center for Brain and Cognitive > Development at the University of London. [Incredible! 9 Brainy Baby > Abilities<http://www.livescience.com/14343-amazing-brainy-baby-abilities.html> > ] > > To find out if the same is true of babies, Filippetti and her colleagues > tested 40 newborns who were between 12 hours and four days old. The babies > sat on the experimenter's lap in front of a screen. On-screen, a video > showed a baby's face being stroked by a paintbrush. The researcher either > stroked the baby's face with a brush in tandem with the stroking shown on > the screen, or delayed the stroking by five seconds. > > Next, the babies saw the same video but flipped upside down. Again, the > researcher stroked the infants' faces in tandem with the upside-down image > or delayed the stroking by three seconds. > > Working with babies so young is a challenge, Filippetti told LiveScience. > > "It is challenging just in terms of the time you actually have when the > baby is fully awake and responsive," she said. > > To determine whether the babies were associating the facial stroking they > saw on-screen with their own bodies, as in the rubber-hand > illusion<http://www.livescience.com/28694-non-amputees-feel-phantom-limb.html>, > > the researchers measured how long the babies looked at the screen in each > condition. Looking time is the standard measurement used in infant > research, because babies can't answer questions or verbally indicate their > interest. > > The researchers found that babies looked the longest at the screen when > the stroking matched what they felt on their own faces. This was true only > of the right-side-up images; infants didn't seem to associate the flipped > faces with their own. [See video of the baby > experiment<http://www.livescience.com/41403-newborn-babies-understand-their-bodies-video.html> > ] > > The findings suggest that babies are born with the basic mechanisms they > need to build body awareness, Filippetti and her colleagues report today > (Nov. 21) in the journal Current Biology. > > "These findings have important implications for our understanding of body > perception throughout development," Filippetti said. Perhaps more > important, she added, becoming more knowledgeable about normal development > may help scientists better understand autism and related disorders. Autism > research frequently focuses on abnormalities in social > development<http://www.livescience.com/41000-autism-infant-eye-tracking.html>, > > Filippetti said, but less is known about how children with autism perceive > the self. > > Next, Filippetti and her colleagues hope to use noninvasive brain imaging > to determine how the newborn brain responds to sensory input to build body > awareness. >
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