Rethinking the origins of self-awareness in human infancy with virtual reality (VR)

目前围绕婴儿自我意识发展的研究相对没有定论，特别是探索这种能力何时发展的研究。这在很大程度上是由于该领域现有方法的结构效度较差。例如，为了让婴儿通过最常见的自我意识测试(镜子胭脂测试)，他们必须首先对镜子有一个了解。因此，这项研究使用纽波特最先进的便携式虚拟现实设备来解决这些问题。虚拟现实设备允许参与者在身体空间内观看自己身体的图像，而不是像目前的“体外”测试方法所要求的那样，在远处的镜像或投影中查看自己的身体图像。它还允许使用实时图像，而不是以前的自我意识测试方法使用的预先录制的视频。这允许使用可能的最生态有效的线索。便携式虚拟现实设备也非常适合婴儿使用，因为它不像标准虚拟现实设备那样通常戴在头盔上。婴儿的四肢在虚拟现实机器中进行视觉操作，以确定他们对这种差异的敏感性。这种敏感度是通过观察时间和收集体感诱发反应(使用头皮脑电)来衡量的，以发现婴儿时期自我意识的神经标记。这些操作包括空间和时间上的不协调，以探索各种形式的婴儿自我意识。由于人们认为自我意识在生命早期就会发展到所有的形式，所以操作也通过多种形式进行，即触摸和视觉。这项研究对这一领域的研究非常有益，因为这些对自我的基本理解会发展成更复杂的认知能力，因此发现这些能力是从哪里开始的是非常必要的。开发自我意识测试还可以识别那些在这一领域发展不典型的人。这种对某些严重智力残疾的早期诊断可能有助于防止潜在的挑战性行为的发展。

The research currently surrounding the development of self-awareness in infants is relatively inconclusive, specifically research exploring when this ability is developed. This is largely due to the poor construct validity of the existing methods in this field. For example, for infants to pass the most common test of self-awareness (the mirror rouge test) they must first have an understanding of mirrors. This research therefore uses Newport's state-of the art portable VR equipment to combat these issues.The VR equipment allows the participant to view images of their own body within bodily space as opposed to in a distant mirror image or projection, as required in current "out-of-body" testing methods. It also allows for live images rather than pre-recorded videos used by previous methods of self-awareness testing. This permits the use of the most ecologically valid cues possible. The portable VR equipment is also very suitable for use by infants as it is not as typically heavy head-mounted as standard VR equipment.Infants' limbs are visually manipulated while in the VR machine to establish their sensitivity to such discrepancies. This sensitivity is measured using both looking time and by gathering somatosensory evoked responses (using a scalp EEG) to discover neural markers of self-awareness in infancy. The manipulations include spatial and temporal incongruities in order to explore various forms of infantile self-awareness. As it is believed self-awareness develops across all modalities early in life, manipulations are also administered through multiple modalities, namely touch and sight.This research is very beneficial to this area of study as these basic understandings of the self go on to develop into more complex cognitive abilities, therefore it is imperative to discover where these abilities begin. Developing tests for self-awareness also allows identification of those who are developing atypically in this area. This early diagnosis of certain severe intellectual disabilities may assist in preventing potentially challenging behaviours from developing.