Babies born with five from seven functional brain networks

In the 1950s the blank slate theory was the most prominent theory ascribed to babies. They are born blank slates and then their experiences allow them to develop their networks thoughts, associations, etc., and just about everything else. Though this theory is long since dead, to an extent — to what extent has not been known.

In comes this research hot off the presses which shows just how much. The researchers around Fiona Molloy of Ohio State University analysed data from 267 newborns whose brains were scanned one week after birth, while they were asleep. Even though these babies were sleeping the brain still communicates with itself and reacts to the outside world, and by focusing at the micro level they could identify which networks were active in these brains.

They found that five of the seven major networks were already active showing that we are born with these circuits already active and functioning. The two that weren’t were the control network and limbic network associated with cognitive control and emotions respectively.

So, babies can’t exert emotional control — no surprise there. We also know this control network doesn’t actually fully mature until after 20 years old. What was also interesting is that the attention network showed the most variability suggesting that there are individual differences that are inborn and this attention network is related to behaviour and different disorders such as the obvious ADHD.

All in, another piece of critical evidence showing what is already happening in newborns’ brains.

Reference:
M. Fiona Molloy, Zeynep M. Saygin.
Individual variability in functional organization of the neonatal brain.
NeuroImage, 2022; 253: 119101
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119101