Early Self-Awareness Evident in Four-Month-Old Babies

Babies as young as four months old demonstrate enhanced somatosensory brain activity when tactile sensations are associated with objects moving closer to them, indicating early self-awareness development. This challenges conventional thinking about when self-awareness begins and how it develops. Older babies at eight months old also displayed surprise responses when tactile sensations were unexpected due to the visual direction of the moving object, suggesting the development of more sophisticated spatial awareness. The findings suggest that even before babies learn to reach for objects, their multisensory brain is wired to understand how their bodies interact with the space around them, known as peripersonal space.