Summary: New evidence indicates that conscious experience can begin as early as late pregnancy or at birth. The study suggests an infant’s developing brain can form conscious experiences that contribute to their emerging sense of self and their understanding of the world.
Researchers drew on recent advances in identifying neural markers of consciousness from adult brain imaging and applied those methods to evaluate newborns and late-term fetuses. Their review integrates empirical findings and theoretical perspectives to illuminate when and how infant consciousness may arise.
These conclusions carry important clinical, ethical, and potentially legal implications, as they influence how we consider the experiences and treatment of newborns and late-term fetuses.
Key facts
- Markers of consciousness: The review applies brain-imaging markers—validated in adults for distinguishing conscious from unconscious states—to the infant brain for the first time in a consolidated analysis.
- Sensory integration: Evidence indicates newborns can combine sensory input with nascent cognitive processing into coherent, experience-like states that help them interpret others’ actions and plan responses.
- Perceptual profile: Infants tend to be aware of fewer items at once and require more time to perceive complex scenes than adults, yet they can process a broader variety of sensory information (for example, diverse language sounds) during early development.
Source: TCD
There is evidence that some form of conscious experience is present by birth, and perhaps even in late pregnancy, an international team of researchers from Trinity College Dublin and collaborators in Australia, Germany and the USA has found.
Published in the peer-reviewed journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, the paper, titled “Consciousness in the cradle: on the emergence of infant experience,” argues that by the time of birth the infant brain is often capable of producing conscious experiences. These early experiences can leave lasting traces on a child’s developing sense of self and on how they come to understand their environment.
The multidisciplinary team included neuroscientists and philosophers from Monash University (Australia), the University of Tübingen (Germany), the University of Minnesota (USA), and Trinity College Dublin.
Infant consciousness remains a challenging subject because babies cannot verbally report their experiences. Dr Tim Bayne, Professor of Philosophy at Monash University and one of the study’s lead authors, highlights this difficulty: “Nearly everyone who has held a newborn infant has wondered what, if anything, it is like to be a baby. But of course we cannot remember our infancy, and consciousness researchers have disagreed on whether consciousness arises ‘early’ (at birth or shortly after) or ‘late’ — by one year of age, or even much later.”
To bring fresh insight into this debate, the authors reviewed advances in consciousness science—particularly neural markers derived from adult brain imaging that reliably distinguish conscious from unconscious states. By examining how these markers appear or could appear in infants, the review offers a new perspective on the timing and nature of early conscious experience.
Co-author Lorina Naci, Associate Professor in Trinity’s School of Psychology and leader of the Consciousness and Cognition Group, commented on the functional implications: “Our findings suggest that newborns can integrate sensory and developing cognitive responses into coherent conscious experiences to understand the actions of others and plan their own responses.”
The review also explores qualia-like aspects of infancy—what it subjectively feels like to be a baby. It emphasizes that sensory systems mature unevenly: for example, visual capacities are relatively immature at birth, whereas auditory processing develops earlier. This uneven maturation shapes the character of early experience.
Importantly, the authors note that infants may have a narrower focus of awareness at any given moment and need more time to process their surroundings compared with adults. Yet early development also supports a heightened sensitivity to a wider range of input—such as the ability to detect and discriminate sounds from multiple languages—suggesting a rich and flexible perceptual repertoire during infancy.
About this consciousness and neurodevelopment research news
Author: Fiona Tyrrell
Source: TCD
Contact: Fiona Tyrrell – TCD
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Consciousness in the cradle: on the emergence of infant experience” by Tim Bayne et al. Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Abstract
Consciousness in the cradle: on the emergence of infant experience
Infant consciousness remains a puzzling topic: despite the fact that everyone was once a baby, there is no consensus about when conscious experience first appears or in what form. Some theorists argue for a late onset, claiming consciousness depends on cognitive capacities unlikely to exist before a child’s first year. Others support an early-onset view, proposing that consciousness may be present at birth or develop during the third trimester.
Progress has been hindered not only by difficulties in obtaining the relevant behavioral and neural data, but also by uncertainty about how to study consciousness when infants cannot give verbal reports or demonstrate intentional behaviors reliably. This review surveys empirical and methodological advances and argues that recent evidence favors early-onset accounts of the emergence of consciousness.