Four-month-old baby brain development.

The researchers found that the brains of babies as young as four months old processed vision in much the same way as adults.
the visual cortique is a brain region that specializes in processing specific images (visual information), such as faces, objects, or scenes.
researchers found that areas of the adult brain that respond to faces and scenes work the same way as babies' brains.
MIT used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners to scan babies' brains as they looked at different types of images.
this MRI image shows Dr. Rebecca Saxe stroking her child, lighting up the brain regions that respond to her face.
image was scanned by MIT researchers who found that four-month-old babies process visual information almost the same way as adults.
so far, MRI scans of babies' brains have been difficult because they require rest, a requirement that is not easy for newborns.
MRI scanner is loud and dark inside, which can scare babies.
, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT's McGovern Brain Institute, said: "Infants and MRI machines have different needs.
baby will be constantly moving to find a comfortable place and will be very interested in what they see.
and the MIR scanner is noisy, it's dark inside, requiring people to show up at a specified time, stay still throughout, focus on one thing for a longer period of time, and follow the instructions.
to make it easier to scan babies, the researchers made some "modifications" to the MRI scanner.
made a car seat-like seat for the baby to lean on instead of lying flat.
, place a mirror in front of them so that the babies can see a particular video.
extra space in the scanner, allowing parents or researchers to sit next to the baby.
usually only one person is allowed in the scanner.
researchers also silenced MRI scanners.
Saxe said: "Babies can hear their parents in the scanner.
the four- to six-month-old babies entered the scanner, the researchers continued to play videos while scanning the baby's brain.
researchers showed babies children smiles or outdoor scenes, such as moving cars and suburban streets.
Saxe said: "Some areas of the adult brain prefer to see faces and socially related things, while some areas prefer to see environments and objects.
scans showed that many areas of the baby's brain showed the same preference for scenes or faces as adults.
suggests that certain preferences develop in the first few months of life, rather than taking years to observe the world in order for the brain to form a specific response.
but the researchers also found different ways in which the baby's brain responds to some images.
infant brain does not have some "highly selective" areas of the adult brain, such as certain areas that prefer the human face to any other information input, including the human body or other animal faces.
when babies see four different categories of things (not just faces and scenes, but also bodies and objects), they react differently.
researchers only used data from when babies looked at images.
they scanned 17 babies for 26 hours and obtained only nine four hours of valid data.
and her team wanted to scan more babies between 3 and 8 months of age to understand how these areas associated with visual processing change in the first few months of life.
they also hope to study younger babies to see when these specific brain functions first appear.
the findings have been published in Nature Communications.
more information about the brain: What exactly is in the brain what brain grows and develops in the womb Brain memory formation mechanism research.