Mammals are amazing creatures, and more and more information is coming to light about just how amazing we are. Recently, a study was published by Yale that asserts that even before birth-we are able to imagine what the world will be like.
Mammals are living beings that include humans, dolphins, monkeys, dogs, and rats. Our ability to comprehend things, even that we have never experienced, has been observed before, but never to this extent.
According to William Ziegler III, a professor of neurology at Yale, says that before mice came out of the womb, they could observe neonatal retina activity. As soon as they are born, this activity ceases.
“At eye-opening, mammals are capable of pretty sophisticated behavior,” said Crair, senior author of the study, who is also vice provost for research at Yale. “But how do the circuits form that allows us to perceive motion and navigate the world? It turns out we are born capable of many of these behaviors, at least in rudimentary form.”
To better understand the pre-birth brainwaves, they scanned the brains of the mice right before birth, but before their eyes had opened. What they found was that the waves flowed in such a way that mimics the same activity we experience when we see our environment when we are moving through our physical world.
“This early dream-like activity makes evolutionary sense because it allows a mouse to anticipate what it will experience after opening its eyes and be prepared to respond immediately to environmental threats,” Crair notes.
However, because Mice are different from humans, there is a need for this study to be tested further on actual humans.
“These brain circuits are self-organized at birth and some of the early teaching is already done,” Crair concludes. “It’s like dreaming about what you are going to see before you even open your eyes.”
This study has been published in the journal Science.