The Baby is Also "The Thinker" - 1

How do babies express what they feel and think in their mind in response to external stimuli? Of course since they have not developed their language abilities, there are no ways other than crying and laughing to express themselves. Their way of expressions is limited. However, what they think seems to be surprisingly refined. Refined ideas do not mean the instinctive recognition of sensuous stimuli that are related with one's survival such as hunger, pain and heat; these ideas are more advanced emotions, mental or psychological functions of the thinker that are more essential, such as happiness, wonder and curiosity. Other than Feeling Pains and Cold It seems that human-beings are equipped with such an advanced spiritual functionality since their babyhood. We tend to think that sensing functions such as feeling pain and cold as well as motor functions such as moving one's limbs develop first followed by the advanced and complicated functionalities. What is the basis for the development of such advanced and complicated spiritual functionalities? The answer is a brain. The brain of a newborn weighs about 400 grams. The weight increases rapidly and when one becomes eight years old of age, his/her brain weighs more than 90% of that of an adult. The brain of a Japanese male weighs 1,400 grams while that of a female weighs slightly less: 1,250 grams in proportion to the difference of height (The different weight, however, does not affect one's intelligence). Therefore the brain of a child with a school age is already three times heavier than that of a newborn. Strong Response to Stimuli of Appropriate Difference Many biological phenomena that take place in the course of brain development are very complex and various morphologically and bio-chemically with lots of unknowns. There are two types of nerve cells that control such brain functionalities; neurons and gliacytes. There are about 14 billion neurons and more than 1 billion gliacytes that fill the space between neurons. The neuron plays a central role of brain functions supported by the gliacytes, one end of which is connected to the blood vessel to take nutrients. Neurons supported by gliacytes process, and respond to, stimuli from outside; that is why these neurons are connected each other to form a network. There is no process in gliacytes, while neurons have both long and short processes. Some processes are very long (which are called axons) the tip of which are connected to the neurons. Those connections are called synapses. Stimuli are processed in the neuron network connected by synapses, which then turn into information to express intellect, emotion and volition. It seems that the basic structures of each network related to various brain functionalities are almost completed in a brain of a newborn. However, since they are not perfect, necessary neurons are selected in response to external stimuli and form synapses; then develop them through the scrap-and-build process to enable the brain functions to cope with more complex information. The neuron network can recognize the prime information1 of various phenomena, which is believed to be hereditary and innate. To put it strongly it is a network of functionalities as a result of a long evolutionary process. When one is born, a more complicated network is established by connecting neurons required to be able to accept, or cope with, various external stimuli. This is understood as an essence of the development of a neural system. Even a newborn baby responds to a moving object or an object of a clear shape and brightness. The baby's brain takes it as visual information; the heartbeats become stronger and more frequent. The baby pays attention to it and expresses his/her concerns. The baby is seeking for information using his/her visual sense. A two to three month old baby responds to the shapes or sounds different from those he/she has experienced before, showing a change in the heart rate. The response relates to the degree of difference. The response is less when the difference is very big or small. The strongest response is observed when the difference is within a certain range. Even the baby can tell the difference of visual and audio information. 1: Prime information Information consists of various factors. Assuming that a human has an ability to genetically recognize those factors as information, they are called prime information. Kobayashi, Noboru (1981). "Akachan mo Kangaeru Hito - 1." (written in Japanese). Tokyo: Child Research Net. Retrieved Jan. 9, 2004, from the World Wide Web http://www.crn.or.jp/LIBRARY/KOBY/MIRAI/cbs0111.html

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