Overview
- A Nature Neuroscience study from Trinity College Dublin scanned 130 awake two-month-old infants with fMRI using short, comfort-focused sessions.
- Infants viewed images from 12 familiar categories, and comparisons with artificial intelligence models decoded category structure in the developing visual system.
- Ventral visual cortex activity formed distinct patterns for different object classes in a manner resembling adult category responses.
- Longitudinal follow-up produced usable data from 66 infants at nine months, revealing stronger separations, including between living and inanimate categories.
- Researchers report that awake-infant fMRI is feasible with tailored protocols and describe prospective applications in early diagnostics, education, and biologically grounded AI.