How Did We See the World in Infancy?

Infancy is perhaps the strangest and most mysterious period of human life. How do babies see the world? How does it perceive? What attracts their attention, how does their brain work in what situation?

A lot of research has been done over the years for countless questions like these, and it continues to be done. However, since the research is done with babies, it is not that easy. for example examining a baby’s brain by imaging it on an MRIIt’s very restrictive because it’s difficult for an awake baby to stay still or execute desired commands. Fortunately, despite everything, scientists have found answers to many questions.

In the beginning everything was blurry, then we started to see

Although our eyes can see functionally in the first few months after birth, our brain has not yet did not have the knowledge and skills to process the data. So our view was limited, but it started to improve over time.

Although we can select faces depending on distance in the first two to three days We were also unable to select faces that were more than 30 cm away. and we were seeing blurry, we could not distinguish colors exactly, and we saw in black and white tones.

Within a month, we started to select faces that were farther away, albeit blurry. However, we had not come a long way in distinguishing colors yet. Our vision was dominated by shades of gray, black, and white..

Colors started to enter our lives…

By the second month, we were able to choose strong red and green tones, albeit weakly. Mainly Even if we see it in black and white or sepia tones We were able to distinguish that some objects in our vision had different colors. Even though we got a little better at seeing distant objects, we still continued to see things blurry from a distance.

Although we start to see almost as much as an adult in the first 6 months, Up to 12 months, this process continued as blurring decreased so that farther objects could be selected and colors became more pronounced, and by the age of 1, we were able to select all objects, people and colors in a room.

Our eyes were sensitive to light, occasionally disorienting…

As a newborn baby our eyes were extremely sensitive to light. So while we weren’t so inclined to open our eyes in bright light, we were able to be more courageous and open our eyes in dim light.

Of course, not yet developed. because of our eye muscles from time to time, our eyes could be disoriented and squint. But this was a situation that was considered normal until the muscles developed.

You can better understand the whole process with a short video;

Yale Baby School, MIT Technology Rewiev, American Optometric Association, Nemours Foundation Kids Health