When is the human brain first capable of thought?

Question

Firstly, can scientists track when people are "thinking", and does the first thought happen in utero or outside? When?

Answer 1

A "thought" cannot be measured.

Neural activity can be measured, but as a salamander or a fish has neural activity, it's hard to call this "thought" unless you believe that salamanders and fish are capable of thought.

So it is impossible to say.

A baby at birth is still assembling the massive brain that is characteristic of humans. In fact, one of the reasons that human babies are more helpless at birth than just about any organism is that it has to be born before it is fully developed or its head would not fit through the birth canal of the pelvic bone of human females.

So it is impossible to say when the first "thought" occurs.

Answer 2

"Scientists" cannot track when people are thinking, however plotting areas of the brain which are active is relatively easy. In experimentation biologists have, by arduous trial and error, found roughly which area of the brain controls what. It is when these areas start communicating (fissures, corpus collosum, gyri) that first "thought" is believed to develop.

However baby brains seem to think once they pop out : ) so its kind of hard to tell when exactly in utero this happens. unless of course the mother subjects to an operation where the baby's head can be secured and an MRI and CAT scan be used to asses the neural system development.

Answer 3

There is no scientific process to differentiate thinking from neural activity. Neural activity has been measured as early as 54 days after conception. Is that the same as thinking? Good question. It is common knowledge that a person is not considered dead until neural activity stops (brain dead) so I wonder if that means they are alive when it starts. Hmm.

Answer 4

I think in utero.