Consciousness in the cradle: on the emergence of infant experience (Part 5)

 April 20, 2026

pave the way for high density multichannel MEG recordings tailored toward the head size of in- fants using 3D-printed helmets [105]. Besides the recording technologies themselves, innovative new experiments and analyses will also be needed. The development of techniques for using fMRI to study awake infants is already yielding dividends and the prospect of making PCI ap- proaches infant-friendly by substituting sensory stimulation for TMS may deliver even richer re- wards [75].

Although progress in understanding the origins of consciousness will likely be advanced by a bet- ter understanding of brain development, understanding the implications of developmental data for accounts of the emergence of consciousness will also require a better understanding of the neural and functional basis of consciousness. This review has taken a theory-neutral approach to infant consciousness, but it is likely that a full understanding of the emergence of experience will require the development of a complete and widely accepted theory of consciousness.

Acknowledgments We acknowledge support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) to T.B. ; an ERC advanced grant 2017 FOUNDCOG 787981 to R.C.; the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), project number 493345456, to J.M.; and a L’Oreal for Women In Science International Rising Talent Award and the Welcome Trust Institu- tional Strategic Support Fund to L.N. T.B. and J.F. gratefully acknowledge the support of funding from Monash University’s Arts Faculty which facilitated this collaboration. We are also indebted to Ghislaine Dehaene, Stan Dehaene, Lauren Emberson, Marcello Massimini, Pedro Mediano, Liad Mudrik, Anil Seth, Giulio Tononi, Janet Werker, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this material.

Declaration of interests

The authors have no interests to declare.

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