Editorial Team
Who among us, who works in the world of health, has not asked himself at least once: "when does consciousness arise?". But first of all, what is consciousness? Consciousness has been defined as "awareness of oneself, of others and of the environment that surrounds us, therefore being present for oneself and for others and responding to stimuli". However, the moment in which consciousness develops has remained a mystery. A recent work opens up fascinating and significant hypotheses on this moment. (Consciousness in the cradle: on the emergence of infant experience. Tima Bayne, Lorina Naci, Joel Frohlich, Rhodri Cusack, Julia Moser. Published October 12, 2023 in “Trends in Cognitive Sciences”).
To provide a new perspective on the topic, the researchers examined the most recent studies on consciousness available in the literature, evaluating in newborns those brain imaging markers that are used to establish the degree of consciousness in adults. The analysis revealed that some form of consciousness would develop even in the perinatal period (between the 28th week of gestation and the 7th day after birth). Four elements support this hypothesis: the advanced connectivity of the brain, the indicators of attention, the integration of sensory information and physical markers related to surprise and reorientation of attention. These results, if confirmed by subsequent studies, would be surprising, because they would immediately activate attention on the gestational period and its influence on the fetus, extending the already known influences of the environment in the intrauterine period to the very important neurological phase in which the human being becomes aware of himself and others and which therefore differentiates him from the rest of living beings.
“Our results – said the psychologist of the Trinity College London-based Lorina Naci (who co-authored the research) suggest that newborns can integrate developing sensory and cognitive responses into coherent conscious experiences to understand the actions of others and plan their own responses. "This," she continued, "does not necessarily mean that consciousness is suddenly activated at birth, but that we might expect a gradual awakening of experience to develop as synapses fuse, senses merge, and cognition builds models that can be challenged when new stimuli appear."
This suggestive hypothesis can also stimulate the medical world to pay particular attention to the drugs that are administered during pregnancy to the mother or those prescribed for the newborn, because the effects, collateral and otherwise, would not only act on organic functions but also on those related to synaptic formation, with consequences of enormous importance. Let's think about how many questions we could ask ourselves about the origins of autism, on the development of IQ, on the mechanism related to dreams (for example: do fetuses dream?).
While waiting for new contributions from researchers, perhaps it would be a good thing to start reflecting on this work and gain awareness of the world of the fetus and the newborn that may not be as we have always believed.
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