As early as four weeks of age, the areas of the newborn’s brain that govern the analysis of movement vision are mature and similar to those of adults.
This is the result of a study on the evolution of the brain areas involved in vision in newborn babies, which began 15 years ago and is destined, say the researchers, “to open ever new scenarios”. The study, ‘Development of Bold response to motion in human infants’ and published in the Journal of Neuroscience, was conducted by an all-female team composed of Laura Biagi and Michela Tosetti of the Medical Physics and Magnetic Resonance Laboratory of the Irccs Stella Maris of Pisa, and by Sofia Allegra Crespi of the Psychology Department of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University of Milan, and coordinated by Maria Concetta Morrone of the Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery of the University of Pisa.
The research demonstrates, “by further lowering the age limit of development of these brain areas, how four weeks after birth they are already mature and not, as previously thought, they develop later thanks to the interactions that the newborn has with the outside world “.
“Understanding the fragmentation of brain areas in newborns and how these mature in the first weeks of life has important clinical implications – comments the research team -. For example, it can help predict the consequences of perinatal damage and its outcome, as well as guide physicians towards new, more specific and effective rehabilitation approaches when implemented during certain developmental time windows”.
The research started in 2008 and produced its first publication in 2015 in Plos Biology, demonstrating that the brain areas of vision were already formed and similar to those of an adult already at 7 weeks of life. The studies were then extended to even younger infants, starting from 4 weeks of age: about 20 children were included in the research. For the study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to record the brain activity of newborns as they observed visual stimuli. (HANDLE).
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