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，我们的目标是进行纵向调查到婴儿期出现的自我意识，通过内感受性的敏感性，在与主要照顾者在生命早期的具体互动操作。通过研究自我的发展方面，在三个时间点，我们的目标是回答如何在生命的前一年半通过互动构建最小自我的问题。基于我们的调查在最近的解释预测处理框架，我们测试的假设，即核心机制，使婴儿构建一个动态模型的最小自我是社会和具体的互动与careful.With这个焦点，我们的建议主要解决以下关键问题的当前优先计划：-在何种程度上是自我的塑料？(e.g.自我表征是如何以及在多大程度上受到感觉运动经验、文化和情境因素的影响，并从这些因素中出现的）- (e.g.在第一个工作包中，我们将纵向调查婴儿在3个月、9个月和18个月时通过内感受灵敏度实现的自我感。这将使我们能够检查在生命的前一年半内内感受灵敏度的发展轨迹。在三个实验中，我们将检查幼儿内感受敏感性的行为和神经标志物。 在第二个工作包中，我们将通过检查婴儿母亲心脏内感受性敏感性的行为和神经标志物来调查婴儿母亲的内感受性敏感性。我们假设，照顾者谁可以更好地检测他们的内感受信号应该更敏感的婴儿的需要，从而使环境更可预测的婴儿，这将支持婴儿的内感受敏感性的发展。在第三个工作包中，我们将对母亲和婴儿之间的身体互动进行彻底的调查，以确定有助于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。为了测量交互过程的神经方面，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，两个人的大脑活动在自然的交互中被测量（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.