Me or You?

Becoming aware of ourselves

We are interested in understanding how babies and children learn to use information coming from different senses to perceive their body.

For example, we use methods like EEG to measure the naturally-occurring electrical brain activity in response to different tasks, such as while babies watch a photo of themselves or another baby.

The EEG cap is made of sensors embedded in sponges that are arranged in a stretchy net. We soak the net in warm water with a bit of salt and baby shampoo, this makes the sponges go soft and warm and allows us to measure the brain activity that occurs when babies are learning.

We also have specific studies for primary school children, to study how we keep up with our growing body as we get older. We use visual illusions and fun games to measure children’s ability to correctly localise and use their hands to complete actions. We also study how children feel about different bodies and how we can promote body positivity across the lifespan.