Groundbreaking Study Uncovers Origin of “Conscious Awareness”
Highlights
Sloan’s technique demonstrated that 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. ⤴️
The new approach used in this study frames agency as an emergent property from the functional coupling of organism and environment. ⤴️
A complete coordinative analysis of baby motion, mobile motion, and their interaction, found that the emergence of agency is a punctuated self-organizing process, with meaning found both in movement and stillness.
“The babies in our study have revealed something really profound: that there is action in the midst of inaction, and inaction in the midst of action. Both provide meaningful information to the infant exploring the world and its place in it,” said Kelso. “The coordination dynamics of movement and stillness jointly constitute the unity of the baby’s conscious awareness – that they can make things happen in the world. Intentionally.” ⤴️
“The babies in our study have revealed something really profound: that there is action in the midst of inaction, and inaction in the midst of action. Both provide meaningful information to the infant exploring the world and its place in it,” said Kelso. “The coordination dynamics of movement and stillness jointly constitute the unity of the baby’s conscious awareness – that they can make things happen in the world. Intentionally.” ⤴️