Eureka baby! Groundbreaking study uncovers origin of ‘conscious awareness’

Fundamental questions of agency — acting with purpose — have perplexed some of the greatest minds in history including Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Now, human babies provide groundbreaking insight into the origins of agency. Since goal-directed action appears in the first months of human life, researchers used young infants as a test field to understand how spontaneous movement transforms into purposeful action. The ‘birth’ of agency can be quantified as a ‘eureka-like,’ pattern-changing phase transition within a dynamical system that spans the baby, the brain, and the environment.
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