What do newborn babies think about? | Claudia Passos Ferreira

Summary

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Podcast Summary: TED Talks Daily – "What do newborn babies think about?" | Claudia Passos Ferreira

Date: October 20, 2025
Speaker: Claudia Passos Ferreira, philosopher, bioethicist, clinical psychologist

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Overview

This episode features Claudia Passos Ferreira examining an age-old, deeply charged question: What is it like to be a newborn baby? Ferreira breaks down cutting-edge research on infant consciousness, challenging the long-standing view that newborns are passive beings without subjective experience. She explores neuroscientific evidence suggesting that consciousness may begin far earlier than previously assumed, even before birth, and discusses the profound medical and ethical implications of these findings.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Mystery of Newborn Consciousness

Timestamp: 03:09–05:12

• Ferreira frames the experience of being a newborn: "You wake up in a new world. Your eyes open to bright, confusing lights. Your ears are filled with mysterious sounds. Everything around you feels unfamiliar." (Ferreira, 03:09)
• She raises the central question: Do babies experience consciousness—the subjective sense of perceiving, thinking, and feeling just as adults do?
• Historically, newborns were viewed as "passive observers of overwhelming chaos" and believed incapable of feeling pain or having conscious experiences.

2. Advances in Understanding Infant Abilities

Timestamp: 05:12–06:29

• Past scientific practices, like performing surgery on infants without anesthetic, were rooted in outdated beliefs about infant consciousness.
• Recent developmental psychology has shown infants are more complex, but it remained unknown what (if anything) they subjectively experience since babies can’t describe their feelings.

3. The Neuroscience of Infant Consciousness

Timestamp: 06:29–10:05

• Researchers have started measuring brain activity to bridge the gap:
  • Neurosignals unique to conscious adults are now found in infants’ brains.
• The Auditory Oddball Paradigm:
  • Babies hear repeated sequences (e.g. "beep, beep, beep, boop"), then an unexpected change ("beep, beep, beep, beep").
  • The PRE300 wave, a brain signal only present during conscious perception, has been observed in infants as young as a few days old.
  • Quote: "People in deep sleep don't have it. People in comas don't have it. But newborn babies do." (Ferreira, 07:55)

4. Attention and Networks in the Infant Brain

Timestamp: 08:34–10:05

• Alternating Attention Networks:
  • Research shows newborns display the same kind of brain network alternations as adults—shifting focus between outer world and inner thoughts.
  • "You focus your attention on the speaker for a while, and then you daydream for a while. It turns out that infants do the same sort of thing." (Ferreira, 09:14)
• Attentional Blink:
  • Infants experience a slow-motion version, showing the same type of brain response and suggesting active experience of their environment.

5. The Beginning of Consciousness: Before Birth?

Timestamp: 10:05–11:51

• Premature Infants & Late-term Fetuses:

  • Similar brain patterns are observed in some premature infants.
  • Auditory tests with fetuses at around 35 weeks gestation found they, too, exhibit conscious processing signs.

• Raises the critical question: Could consciousness begin before birth?

• Ethical/Medical Implications:

  • "We now know that when we perform surgery in newborns or premature infants or late-term fetuses, we should give them an anesthetic." (Ferreira, 11:25)
  • Abortion debate context:
    • Ferreira emphasizes strongest evidence centers on brain structures emerging after 24 weeks (third trimester), and "the new evidence might extend to fetuses in the third trimester of gestation, but it doesn't extend earlier than that." (Ferreira, 11:38)

6. A New Picture of Newborns & the Evolution of Consciousness

Timestamp: 11:51–12:30

• Key Reframing: "They are not passive creatures waiting for consciousness to switch on. They are tiny humans already perceiving patterns and interacting with the world in a meaningful way." (Ferreira, 11:55)
• Metaphor of Consciousness:
  • "From the moment we take our first breath to the moment of our death, our lives are lit by the flame of awareness. We share this flame with other animals, and we might one day share it with machines. Collectively, our conscious minds illuminate the universe." (Ferreira, 12:10)
• A poetic close—consciousness as an ongoing, collective phenomenon, "rekindled with each new life in the endless dance of existence." (Ferreira, 12:26)

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Notable Quotes

• “It is hard enough to know what’s going on in an adult’s mind. What could be going on in a newborn baby's mind?” — Claudia Passos Ferreira (03:18)
• "People in deep sleep don't have it. People in comas don't have it. But newborn babies do." (07:55)
• “They are not passive creatures waiting for consciousness to switch on. They are tiny humans already perceiving patterns and interacting with the world in a meaningful way.” (11:55)
• “From the moment we take our first breath to the moment of our death, our lives are lit by the flame of awareness.” (12:10)
• “Collectively, our conscious minds illuminate the universe. And though each flame eventually fades, the light of consciousness never disappears. It is rekindled with its new life in the endless dance of existence.” (12:22)

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Key Timestamps

• 03:09 – Claudia Passos Ferreira begins her talk: framing the newborn experience and the question of consciousness.
• 06:29 – Introduction of brain measurement techniques and the auditory oddball paradigm.
• 07:55 – Discovery of PRE300 wave in newborns; signal of conscious perception.
• 09:14 – Discussion of alternating brain networks in infants.
• 10:37 – Evidence from premature infants and fetuses; consideration of consciousness before birth.
• 11:25 – Ethical implications: use of anesthetic in surgery for infants and late-term fetuses.
• 11:55 – Reframing newborns as perceiving, conscious beings.
• 12:10–12:30 – Metaphorical close on the ongoing, interconnected nature of consciousness.

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Conclusion

Claudia Passos Ferreira's TED Talk overturns the misconception of the newborn mind as blank or insensate. Drawing on recent neuroscientific evidence, she posits that infants—perhaps even late-term fetuses—are not only conscious but experience their world in surprisingly sophisticated ways. This new understanding has far-reaching implications for science, medicine, and ethics, inviting us to rethink what it means to be human right from the very first breath (and possibly before).

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

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[C]

You wake up in a new world. Your eyes open to bright confusing lights. Your ears are filled with mysterious sounds. Everything around you feels unfamiliar. This is the reality of a newborn baby. So what is it like to be a newborn? For a philosopher and a psychologist like me, this is a fascinating question. It is hard enough to know what's going on in adults mind. What could be going on in a newborn baby's mind? Do babies have consciousness, the subjective experience of their mind and the world? In adults, consciousness involves experiences of seeing, hearing and thinking and feelings of pain, pleasure and emotions. Do babies also have these experiences and feelings that light up their inner world? So the traditional view is that newborns are passive observers of overwhelming chaos and they may not be conscious at all. It sounds unbelievable today, but 50 years ago, doctors routinely performed circumcision without anesthetic, convinced that newborns immature brain could not feel pain. Since then, developmental psychologists have shown that infants abilities are much more complex than we thought before. But the question of infant consciousness has remained open. One problem is that infants cannot tell us how they feel. They cannot describe their thoughts. And we certainly cannot take a consciousness test. So how can we know what's going on inside their minds? One answer is to measure infants brains. Over the past few decades, the science of consciousness has taught us a lot about the brain basis of consciousness. In adults we found neurosignals that are only active when an adult's conscious perceiving a stimulus. Recently, neuroscientists found the same neurosignals in infants brains. These provide powerful new evidence that infants might be active experiencing their surroundings for a remarkably early age. One innovative experiment in neuroscience is the audible paradigm. This is a test of how our brain reacts when something unexpected happens. I love this paradigm and here how it works. Imagine repeatedly hearing the same sequence of sounds. Beep, beep, beep boop beep, beep, beep, boop, beep beep beep boop. Suddenly this familiar pattern is interrupted by a different sequence. Beep, beep, beep, beep. Instantly your brain detects the surprise producing a measurable brain signal called the PRE300 wave. This audible response to an expected sequence of sounds only happens when an individual is conscious. People in deep sleep don't have it. People in comas don't have it, but newborn babies do. The neuroscientist is laying the hand has found that when babies are just few days old, they show the same type of brain activity in response to this audible sequence of sounds. What this suggests is that right from birth, infants might be truly experiencing conscious perceptions and conscious expectations. Researchers have also looked for consciousness through patterns of attention in the brain. In conscious adults brain, different types of network alternate their activity. When we switch our attention between the external world and our internal thoughts. You know how it is you might be doing this right now. You focus your attention in the speaker for a while and then you daydream for a while. It turns out that infants do the same sort of thing. The neuroscientist Flori Nanacci recently observed the same type of alternation between these networks in newborn brains. This suggests that this switch on the focus of internal and external awareness are present right from birth. There is also evidence from gaps in attention. When our mind intensely focuses on one thing, it usually becomes blind for something that happens immediately afterward. We call this phenomenon attentional blink. Infants experience this phenomenon too, but in slow motion. At three months old, infants take near a full second to shift their attention from one visual cue to another. Compared to adults that can manage this shift much faster. Amazingly, infants show the same type of brain response when this happens, strongly hinting they are active experience their environment. Researchers have also found relevant brain patterns in premature infants, which makes you wonder, could consciousness begin before birth? This is a really important question. I told you earlier how scientists applied the audible test to newborns. Well, they applied the same test to late term fetuses around 35 weeks into pregnancy. The results were striking. Fetus shows the same type of brain response as we found in newborns. So even before birth and entering the world, babies seems to be capable to consciously processing sounds, meaning their awareness might develop while they are still in the womb. Of course, these results have potential implications scientifically, medically and ethically. For a start, we now know that when we perform surgery in newborns or premature infants or late term fetuses, we should give them an anesthetic. I know that many of you be thinking about the abortion debate in that context. I should stress that our strongest evidence is that consciousness requires brain structures that emerge after 24 weeks of gestation, a time when abortion is rare. The new evidence might extend to fetus in third trimester of gestation, but it doesn't extend earlier than that. This is a new understanding. And this new understanding is a work in progress. But might change our picture of newborn babies. They are not passive creatures waiting for consciousness to switch on. They are tiny humans already perceiving patterns and interacting with the world in a meaningful way. As human life unfolds, consciousness unfolds. With it, our sense of ourselves grows and changes. Our consciousness waxes and wanes until one day it ends. From the moment we take our first breath to the moment of our death, our lives are lit by the flame of awareness. We share this flame with other animals, and we might one day share it with machines. Collectively, our conscious minds illuminate the universe. And though each flame eventually fades, the light of consciousness never disappears. It is rekindled with its new life in the endless dance of existence. Thank you.

[B]

That was Claudia Passos ferreira speaking at TED 2025. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out [e-mail] curationguidelines and that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This talk was fact checked by the TED research team and produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Greene, Lucy Little and Tansika Songmar Nivong. This episode was mixed by Christopher Faizy Bogan. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Balarazo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feedback. Thanks for listening.

[A]

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