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

在拟议的项目中，我们的目标是对婴儿期正在形成的自我意识进行纵向调查，这种自我意识通过内感敏感性实现，与生命早期与主要照顾者的具体化互动有关。通过考察三个时间点的自我发展方面，我们的目标是回答这样一个问题，即最小的自我是如何在生命的头一年半通过互动来构建的。基于最近对预测性加工框架的解释，我们检验了这一假设，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。基于这一重点，我们的建议主要解决了当前优先方案的以下关键问题：-自我在多大程度上是可塑性的？(例如，自我表征如何受到感觉运动经验、文化和情景因素的影响和影响，以及受这些因素影响和影响的程度)--允许代理人发展自我的机制和先决条件是什么？(例如，机器人能否发展自我)在第一个工作包中，我们将纵向调查婴儿3个月、9个月和18个月大时的自我意识，并通过互感敏感性进行操作。这将使我们能够研究在生命的头一年半内相互感觉敏感性的发展轨迹。在三个实验中，我们将检测幼儿的行为和神经内感敏感性的标记物。在第二个工作包中，我们将通过检测婴儿母亲的心脏相互感觉敏感性的行为和神经标记物来调查婴儿母亲的相互感觉敏感性。我们假设，能够更好地检测到他们的内在感觉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，这将支持婴儿内在感觉敏感性的发展。在第三个工作包中，我们将对母婴之间的具体化互动进行深入的调查，以确定导致婴儿内感觉性的行为、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，在这种方法中，两个人的大脑活动是在自然互动中测量的(Bbiloni&Astolfi，2014)。这种方法将使我们能够研究实时交互过程中的动态大脑活动。

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.