Brain complexity: baby brains under study (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, January 21, 2018, 15:34 (2280 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Despite your comments, the newborn is on autmatic pilot at birth. The cortex is very underdeveloped and only finishes its developmentc at +/- 25 years 0f age. From birth:
http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/why-0-3/baby-and-brain

dhw: I shan’t reproduce the whole article, as there is nothing that I would disagree with in principle. Two quotes I’d like to comment on, though:

"At birth, a baby knows her mother’s voice and may be able to recognize the sounds of stories her mother read to her while she was still in the womb.”
There are different theories about how much information a baby absorbs while still in the womb, but it is widely recognized that as well as positive information (the voice, music, smell) there is negative input – e.g. stress: if it can hear soothing sounds, it can also hear disturbing sounds – which will affect the baby even before it is born. Both contradict your claim that the newborn self starts from zero, but both need to be linked to the second quote:

When a baby is born it does not recognize it is separate from the world around it. It does receive stimuli such as its Mother's voice. The recognition of her voice is imprinted, but the newborn has no understanding of what that reception means. A newborn is not aware it is aware.

dhw: “Therefore, a child’s experiences not only determine what information enters her brain, but also influence how her brain processes information.”

This quote is not about the newborn! But is absolutely true later in the baby's life. Please sort out the immediate newborn from what happens as time passes.

DAVID’S comment: The newborn has to learn to use what it is given. It's self is a blank slate as it starts out in life.

dhw: Yes to your first comment, which applies to babies, teenagers, and even octogenarians (when confronted by information/experiences that are new to us). Your second comment is a non sequitur, though nobody knows exactly how much of the new born’s “self” is already present. You continue to ignore the ever contentious issue of how much is nature and how much is nurture. Nature is what decides how even a baby’s self will react to nurture. It may be material, as in this article, or immaterial, as in the dualism you espouse, but the claim that the newborn self is a blank slate receives no support whatsoever from any of the articles you have quoted.

You have misread the articles as they relate to my view about the instantly newborn baby.He has received stimuli , nothing more. He does not understand how to respond. His automatic/autonomic functions work or he dies.

Unfair criticism: My view is clearly stated through nine years of time here. A personality is 40% genetics, 40% family nurture, and 20% developed by the individual and his/her experiences.