The promise of awake behaving infant fMRI as a deep measure of cognition

What are the contents of the infant mind? In the last decade, computational advances in fMRI have allowed researchers access to the internal representations of adults. Applied similarly in infants, fMRI stands to revolutionize our understanding of cognitive development. By measuring representations at their source, infant fMRI overcomes some of the limitations of behavioral measures. We discuss example domains where this approach could be fruitful, including episodic memory, semantic cognition, spatial representations, and theory of mind. In these and other areas, the richness of fMRI data could give new insight into how infants represent the world and potentially help resolve ongoing debates in developmental science.

Automated summary

The advancement in fMRI technology has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of cognitive development in infants, by providing access to internal representations and overcoming limitations of behavioral measures. By measuring representations at their source, fMRI data can give new insights into how infants represent the world and potentially help resolve ongoing debates in developmental science.