Mind the Body: An Investigation Into the Role of Embodied Interactions in the Construction of Minimal Self in Infancy.

在这个项目中，我们的目标是对婴儿期出现的自我意识进行纵向调查，通过内感受敏感性进行操作，与生命早期与主要照顾者的具体互动有关。通过检查自我的发展方面，跨越三个时间点，我们的目标是回答这个问题，即在生命的头一年半里，最小的自我是如何通过互动构建的。基于最近对预测处理框架的解释，我们验证了一个假设，即允许婴儿构建最小自我动态模型的核心机制之一是与照顾者的社会和具身互动。有了这个重点，我们的建议主要解决以下目前优先计划的关键问题：-自塑的程度有多大？（例如，自我表征如何受到感觉运动经验、文化和情境因素的影响，并在多大程度上受到影响）——允许主体发展自我的机制和先决条件是什么？在第一个工作包中，我们将纵向研究婴儿在3个月、9个月和18个月时通过内感受性敏感性进行操作的自我意识。这将使我们能够检查一岁半前内感受性敏感性的发展轨迹。在三个实验中，我们将研究幼儿内感受敏感性的行为和神经标记。在第二个工作包中，我们将通过检查婴儿母亲的心脏内感受性敏感性的行为和神经标记来研究婴儿母亲的内感受性敏感性。我们假设，能够更好地检测到他们的内感受性信号的照顾者应该对婴儿的需求更敏感，从而使婴儿的环境更可预测，从而支持婴儿内感受性敏感性的发展。在第三个工作包中，我们将对母亲与婴儿之间的具身互动进行深入的研究，以确定影响婴儿内感受敏感性的行为、生理和神经机制，从而支持最小自我的形成。为了测量互动过程的神经方面，我们将使用一种名为超扫描的创新研究方法，在自然互动中测量两个人的大脑活动（Babiloni & Astolfi, 2014）。这种方法将使我们能够在实时交互过程中研究动态的大脑活动。

In the proposed project, we aim to conduct a longitudinal investigation into the emerging sense of self in infancy, operationalized through interoceptive sensitivity, in relation to embodied interactions with the primary caregiver early on in life. By examining the developmental aspects of the self, across three time points, we aim to answer the question of how the minimal self is constructed over the first one and a half years of life through interactions. Grounding our investigation in the recent interpretations of Predictive Processing framework, we test the hypothesis that one of the core mechanisms that allows the infant to construct a dynamic model of minimal self is the social and embodied interactions with the caregiver.With this focus, our proposal mainly addresses the following key questions of the current priority programme:- Wich extent is the self plastic? (e.g. how and how much is self-representation affected by, and emerging from sensorimotor experience, cultural and situational factors)- at are the mechanisms and prerequisites that allow an agent to develop a self? (e.g. can robots develop a self)In the first work package, we will longitudinally investigate the sense of self, operationalized through interoceptive sensitivity, when the infant is 3, 9, and 18 months of age. This will allow us to examine the developmental trajectory of interoceptive sensitivity in the first one and a half years of life. In three experiments, we will examine the behavioral and neural markers of interoceptive sensitivity in young infants. In the second work package, we will investigate interoceptive sensitivity of the infants’ mothers by examining the behavioral and neural markers of their cardiac interoceptive sensitivity. We hypothesize that caregivers who can better detect their interoceptive signals should be more sensitive to the infant’s needs, and consequently make the environment more predictable for the infant, which would then support the development of interoceptive sensitivity of the infant. In the third work package, we will conduct a thorough investigation into the embodied interactions between the mothers and their infants in order to define the behavioral, physiological and neural mechanisms that contribute to the interoceptive sensitivity of the infants, thus, supporting the formation of minimal self. In order to measure the neural aspects of the interaction process, we will use an innovative research method named hyperscanning in which the brain activity of two people is measured in a naturalistic interaction (Babiloni & Astolfi, 2014). This method will allow us to investigate the dynamic brain activity during a real-time interaction process.