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[MUSIC]
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Psychologists used to believe that
the baby human's mind was one great
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blooming buzzing confusion.
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[SOUND] But the baby human comes
into the world already equipped with
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the capacity to think, reason, to learn
about the world, and about itself.
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At the moment, two week old Heather lives
only in the immediate world of the senses.
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Like all newborns she responds
to a series of stimuli.
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They have no meaning for her.
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Play of light and dark from
the window captures her interest.
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Her eyesight is not developed yet
so this is what she sees.
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The patches on the wall seem
to come alive and beckon her.
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At this young age,
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Heather has already embarked on the huge
task of making sense of her surroundings.
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Now her eyes turn to the bars of her crib.
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They look like thick stripes, just
the right size is for her eyes to discern.
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[MUSIC]
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>> [SOUND]
>> But
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what the baby human responds to
most of all is the human face.
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Heather is gazing at the most important
face she's encountered so far.
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At 12 inches what she see's
are mainly contrasts of light and
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dark, where the features are.
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But her clearest view is
from six inches away,
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an easy distance to communicate
love between mother and child.
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It seems nature has prepared
the baby human from birth
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to pay attention to the face,
as if saying look carefully.
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Something that looks like this is going
to be very important for your survival.
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>> Hi there, okay are you all set?
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>> A Daphne Maurer's Lab, Terry Louise is
part of a group studying the phenomenon of
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this attraction and how it develops
in the first three months of life.
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>> Here we go, are you ready?
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>> Ten day old Dylan is shown
a card with two images on it.
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The right side has three blobs
representing the rudimentary configuration
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of the human face.
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The left has the blobs inverted.
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>> Good looking.
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Very good.
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>> Dylan is drawn to the image
that resembles the human face.
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But what is it that he's attracted to?
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>> Careful, I might trick you.
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>> To find out they show
Dylan another card.
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>> Okay, are you all set?
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>> One side has the blurry image of
a face and the other side was created to
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represent only the light and
dark contrasts of a face.
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Dylan prefers to look at the side with
a contrast of a face, which indicates
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that its not the features themselves that
the baby human reads at this age, but
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the areas of contrast
created by those features.
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So what two week old, Heather is
really fascinated with is the contrast
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between light and shadow created by
her mother's eyes, mouth and hairline.
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>> Who's there?
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>> But she doesn't know yet
what they mean.
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Back at the lab,
six-week old Devon is shown the same card.
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>> How about these guys now?
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>> Unlike Dylan, he turns to the image
that looks more like a face.
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The other image no longer interests him.
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So, what happened in those four short
weeks that separate Heather and Devin?
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[MUSIC]
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Researchers believe that this is when
the baby humans' higher brain centers,
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which are sensitive divisional stimuli,
take over.
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And that is what's
directing Devin's gaze and
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begins to give meaning to what he sees.
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At the same time other regions
of the higher brain centers
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are preparing the baby human to think and
reason.
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These exceptional capacities are what
set human apart from the rest
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of the animal kingdom.
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Gaven is eight weeks.
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As he begins to interact
with his environment,
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the world around him takes on new meaning.
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He looks at his mother with new eyes.
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>> [INAUDIBLE]
>> During these critical early weeks,
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new neural pathways in
the brain are forged.
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The more things the baby human sees,
the more this ability surges.
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At two months of age, this is what
Gavin's world looks like to him.
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His life thus far has been a kaleidoscope
of sights, sounds, sensations, and smells.
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But he's now beginning to make
connections between them.
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>> Let's get this all changed for you.
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>> He suddenly realized
a remarkable thing.
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>> There you go, all clean.
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>> That the sound of the voice and
the moving lips of his mother are related.
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>> Good boy.
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>> For the first time,
he can put together sight and sound.
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[MUSIC]
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Out of the chaotic flow of impressions,
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he slowly realizes that
the world isn't one thing.
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He now begins to distinguish
the amazing world of objects.
