Within hours of birth, babies recognize their bodies as a separate entity from the outside world.
This was revealed by a Turin study which, thanks to electroencephalography - a non-invasive neuroimaging technique - measured the neural correlation of this phenomenon.
"Unlike what happens with other mammals, human infants are already able to associate a sound with a touch within a few hours of life - explains Francesca Garbarini, Professor of Psychobiology and Coordinator of the Manibus Lab of the Department of Psychology of the University of Turin -. This could be due to the long and rich gestation phase that may have already prepared the emergence of this mechanism at birth. "
The observed neural responses also show that the child is able to distinguish whether the sound is given near or far from his body, a fundamental aspect for developing defensive behaviors such as relational mechanisms.
"The effect described in the work, if confirmed by future studies, could represent - adds Irene Ronga, Ricatrice of the Department of Psychology of the University of Turin and first author of the study - a possible biomarker of typical neurological development whose alterations could contribute to the early recognition of any developmental anomalies ".
The research was carried out by the Manibus Lab of the Department of Psychology of the University of Turin and by the University Neonatology of the Sant'Anna hospital of the City of Health, in collaboration with the MySpace Lab of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences of the University of Lausanne and the Center for Neural Science of New York University.
Published in the prestigious international scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), it therefore demonstrates that a few days of life for a newborn are enough to develop an efficient multisensory integration.
"The study confirmed that newborns have, from the first hours of life, extraordinary abilities in recognizing stimuli coming from the outside, which we now know can shape brain development already in these very early stages of life and, who knows, maybe even in the fetal period "says Enrico Bertino, Director of University Neonatology of the City of Health of Turin, who, together with Dr. Cristina Perathoner, oversaw the clinical part of the study.
"Helping in a favorable way brain plasticity, maximum at the moment of birth, is the prerequisite for a favorable evolutionary development and the construction of a future capacity for social relations", concludes Bertino, according to whom "even in the Covid era, particular attention must be paid in safeguarding closeness and favorable early mother / newborn / family relationships in this extremely critical period ".