Dr. Joel Frohlich, a neuroscientist, describes the onset of consciousness as a scientific “frontier.”
“There hasn’t been extensive research on when consciousness begins—surprisingly scarce,” he mentions. “For a long time, philosophers dominated this field. In neuroscience, examining consciousness was nearly taboo until about 10 to 20 years ago.”
Today, however, neuroscientists are developing intriguing and innovative methods to explore what it’s like to be a newborn or even an unborn baby to answer the question: when does consciousness truly start?
Evidence of Consciousness in Infants
According to a study by Frohlich and philosopher Professor Tim Bayne, signs of consciousness appear at least by the age of five months. At this stage, infants display enough evidence—not just of wakefulness, but of genuine world experience. Their conclusion is drawn from a “cluster-based” approach, which involves identifying a set of indicators such as brain activity patterns, responses to stimuli, and awareness indicators rather than focusing on a single marker.
“We shouldn’t fully rely on any single marker alone,” Frohlich explains. “However, if there’s a convergence of mini-markers, it’s a good sign that consciousness might be developing.”
Does this imply that infants younger than five months aren’t conscious? The plot thickens here: while younger babies may not show all signs of consciousness, they do exhibit certain markers. Intriguingly, similar signs might be present in fetuses as well.
Key Indicators of Consciousness
One critical marker of a conscious brain, as identified by neuroscientists like Frohlich, is the default mode network. This network of brain regions is active during rest—when daydreaming, recalling memories, or contemplating the future.
Through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanning, researchers have found that newborns possess a simplistic form of the default mode network. Another important aspect is the local-global effect. In Frohlich’s view, recognizing a change in a pattern is indicative of working memory and possibly consciousness.
For instance, consider these sequences:
Beep-beep-beep-BEEP
Beep-beep-beep-BEEP
Beep-beep-beep-BEEP
Beep-beep-beep-beep
Beep-beep-beep-beep
Did you notice a change in the last sequence? Congratulations! That could be a sign of consciousness.
“I could train your brain, through many repetitions of this sequence pattern, to expect the final tone in this four-tone sequence to be deviant,” Frohlich states. “Then, if I present a new sequence that breaks this pattern—it might just be four identical tones—even if there’s no local deviance within that sequence, there’s a global deviance; something that breaks the pattern.”
While Frohlich has observed evidence of this local-global effect in newborns, other researchers have taken the investigation further. Scientists from the University of Tübingen, Germany, discovered similar evidence in full-term fetuses. They used magnetoencephalography, a technique involving the placement of devices over the bellies of pregnant women to measure the magnetic fields generated by fetal brain signals.
Illuminating the Womb
An additional potential marker of consciousness is behavior and attention. Researchers have noted that infants as young as four months, according to Frohlich and Bayne, can choose where to direct their attention. There is evidence suggesting that fetuses might possess this capability as well.
In a 2017 study, Professor Vincent Reid and five other neuroscientists from Lancaster University projected three lights—arranged to resemble eyes and a mouth—into the uterus of pregnant women and used ultrasounds to observe fetal reactions. They moved these lights over the pregnancy bump and noticed that the fetuses turned their heads to look at them.
“No one truly agrees on whether the fetus sees something resembling a face or simply a light spot,” Frohlich comments.
However, he notes that a team of neuroscientists in Turin, Italy, independently replicated this experiment, tracking fetal eye movements instead of head rotation, and observed that the fetal eye lenses also followed the face-like lights.
How Early Could Consciousness Begin?
The various tests that neuroscientists can conduct suggest that babies—and possibly even fetuses—exhibit some level of consciousness. If consciousness begins before birth, it could raise ethical questions about abortion. However, Frohlich assures there is no need for concern.
“What’s crucial to understand here is that we’re only discussing the final trimester of pregnancy, which is usually after the legal limits for abortion in most jurisdictions,” he clarifies. “Most abortions occur much earlier, typically in the first trimester of pregnancy.”
Any abortion before the third trimester would precede the development of the brain part responsible for processing sensory signals: the thalamus, known as the gateway to consciousness.
“The thalamus doesn’t even establish connections—synapses—with the cerebral cortex until the beginning of the third trimester or between 24 and 26 weeks of gestation,” Frohlich explains. “Until then, a fully plausible consciousness, at least as we understand it, rich with external world sensations, doesn’t exist.”
Nonetheless, the work of neuroscientists like Frohlich might have profound implications for determining which other entities could be considered conscious.
As artificial intelligence emerges and grows more sophisticated, Frohlich notes that it could be valuable for scientists to develop a “theory of consciousness.”
“If we can determine, in humans, ‘Consciousness begins at this age,’ we could extrapolate to other systems, based on the criteria we use to reach this conclusion for ourselves,” he suggests.
Împotriva articolelor redacției noastre, persoanele nemulțumite pot formula Contestație în termen de 10 zile de la publicarea articolului, la judecătoria Orășenească nr. 1 München Bayern Deutschland, in conformitate cu Legea federală Germană. Considerăm că nu se pot formula acțiuni la instanțele din România deoarece nici o persoană care activează în trustul nostru nu poate fi extrasă de sub jurisdicția federală germană. Considerăm că redacția noastră nu răspunde în fața autorităților din România ci doar celor federale sau civile germane. deoarece legea română nu are efecte de extraneitate asupra redacției chiar dacă subiectul știrilor face obiectul unor evenimente sau persoane din România și sunt scrise în limba română. Limba română nu este izvor de extraneitate a legii.
