When you look at a newborn baby, what do you think is behind those sweet little unfocused eyes?
For
a long time, scientists thought “nothing much.” In fact, until the
1970s doctors would perform surgery on infants without anesthesia (!!)
thinking that they were so unconscious they could not feel pain. As it
turns out, the infant brain is a lot more active than previously
thought.
Jonah Lehrer wrote an article for the Boston Globe
a week or so back called “Inside the Baby Brain” that examines this
question, and it’s absolutely fascinating (Lehrer is a really good
science writer for the layperson, I think). It talks about how babies’
brains are more like lanterns, casting a diffuse glow on everything,
versus the adult brain which is more like the intense, focused beam of
a flashlight.
One example he gives is a study where kids were
shown two cards, but asked to remember only the one on the right. The
more focused brains of adults and older children
Read More...
