A new wearable brain imaging headgear for babies found unexpected activity in the prefrontal cortex (an area that processes emotions), in response to social stimuli, appearing to confirm that babies start processing what’s happening to them in social situations as early as 5 months old
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/sep/wearable-brain-imaging-device-shines-light-how-babies-respond-real-world-situations
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>This latest technology can measure neural activity across the whole outer surface of a baby’s brain. An earlier version developed by the same team could only measure activity in one or two parts of a baby’s brain at a time.
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>The researchers say this technology could help to map the connections between different brain regions and establish what distinguishes typical and atypical neurodevelopment in the crucial early stages of childhood and shed light on conditions of neurodiversity such as autism, dyslexia and ADHD.
Paper: [Whole-head high-density diffuse optical tomography to map infant audio-visual responses to social and non-social stimuli | Imaging Neuroscience | MIT Press](https://direct.mit.edu/imag/article/doi/10.1162/imag_a_00244/123636/Whole-head-high-density-diffuse-optical-tomography)
As a child care professional and infant specialist I can say it occurs even earlier for some.