Why Don't Babies Smile from Birth?

78 点作者 sukhadatkeereo超过 7 年前

14 条评论

jonmc12超过 7 年前

The author's implied premise that a smile is a universal form of emotional expression vs a cultural adaptation was presented in the Darwin paper he cited: "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals". Interestingly, a 2012 paper tested this hypothesis:"In sum, our data directly show that across cultures, emotions are expressed using culture-specific facial signals. Although some basic facial expressions such as fear and disgust (2) originally served as an adaptive function when humans “existed in a much lower and animal-like condition” (ref. 1, p. 19), facial expression signals have since evolved and diversified to serve the primary role of emotion communication during social interaction. As a result, these once biologically hardwired and universal signals have been molded by the diverse social ideologies and practices of the cultural groups who use them for social communication.""Facial expressions of emotion are not culturally universal", <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/109/19/7241" rel="nofollow">http://www.pnas.org/content/109/19/7241</a>

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paulhart超过 7 年前

Because the two most magical things in the early stages of parenthood are:* when the baby consciously smiles at you for the first time (they will often smile in their sleep, but that's "only" cute);* when the baby laughs for the first time - doing something that's funny enough to them for them to vocalize their pleasure can be a challenge!Disclaimer / anecdata source: once-again father, four month old.

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jxramos超过 7 年前

I thought I recalled reading in the past that babies actually can't see very far in the newborn stages. The fact that the areola and nipple are super high contrast to the surrounding skin and whose dimensions are optimally situated for a babies focal length is a mark of that. Scent and sound play large roles in the early stages. Our baby would respond to her siblings voices since she's heard and played with them since in utero. It would make sense that the most capable sense would develop more utility. I recall reading a story where a musician was said to have dived into a new body of work to study some cello concerto or something he's never been exposed to or learned before. But as he dived into it he found it all so strangely familiar. He brought that up to his mother of this strange dejavu like experience and she had then told him that when he was in the womb she was vigorously mastering that piece herself.

azakai超过 7 年前

> “Being happy requires a fair amount of self-referential thinking, whereas being in pain or being unhappy doesn’t require that in the same way,” he suggested. “To be happy, you have to know that you’re happy.This doesn't seem right at all. Just like pain doesn't require self-referential thinking, neither should pleasure.

fet超过 7 年前

My sons only smiled when they were sleeping, and presumably dreaming, until they were about 6 months. But they smiled while they were sleeping since birth (4 or 5 days old technically).When they finally did smile while awake it was at a stuffed monkey.

grondilu超过 7 年前

> Their facial muscles work fine, but the neural networks that let them recognize the feeling of happiness take a while to developI like it when an article has a TL,DR; as a subtitle.

dvt超过 7 年前

Here's (another) SA article[1] that seems to somewhat counter the claims found here; namely, that joy, laughter, and humor are not "culturally adapted" but built into our neural correlates. This is a famous (and ground-breaking) study conducted by Jaak Panksepp[2].Maybe smiling is culturally-specific, but laughter certainly isn't. I'm not sure if there's much of a difference between the two -- to me it seems to be a difference of intensity (of emotion) and not a difference in kind.[1] <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rats-laugh-but-not-like-human/" rel="nofollow">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rats-laugh-but-no...</a>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaak_Panksepp" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaak_Panksepp</a>

emmelaich超过 7 年前

Sorta related, the Still Face Experiment is one of the most disturbing things I've seen on the internet.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apzXGEbZht0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apzXGEbZht0</a>The disturbing part goes from about 1:00 to 2:00.

rotrux超过 7 年前

> "Why Don't Babies Smile from Birth?":Answer: Because!! Imagine how horrific that would be if you were aware in any capacity whatsoever.Longer Answer: Ok so let's make some prly pretty inaccurate assumptions & imagine you're aware the second water breaks. You're about to join us other flesh-bags in the land of taxes, internet, and really unrealistic expectations.Your eyes, first of all, exist. They are also not opening which is prly good cuz like SIGHT MAN?! WHO ARE ALL THESE MOVING THINGS WHAT?! Also you're covered in about as viscous a human-juice as exists. Technically men have a more viscous one which used to be half of you but like ok moving on...No body said "hey baby, you're about to get borned right now." Naturally this means stuff's about to change & even though maybe it's a little bit cramped or whatever, you're kinda warm in here.K so best-case now, no C-Section necessary. Your whole universe starts to open up above you while the likely epic blood-curdling screams of your future Mom start to percolate themselves into...oh what's this?...A BRAND NEW SENSATION CALLED HEARING WHAT IS THIS?!K so then you crest. If dad's around he's probably terrified of you because you look like an alien + the aforementioned Mom-labor-screams. Well and like I said your eyes are welded closed, but you prly still know: babies are psychic according to science.But I digress. Babies prly (at least partially) don't smile from birth for the same reason you wouldn't.

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kelukelugames超过 7 年前

Babies do smile at birth. It's a reflex smile. They don't start smiling for real until 1+ months.

buu700超过 7 年前

Anecdotal: apparently I stopped crying and started smiling when I was introduced to my mom, which the doctors found unusual.

drpgq超过 7 年前

I wonder at what age kids start to display non-Duchenne smiles.

reaperducer超过 7 年前

> Why Don't Babies Smile from Birth?Have you SEEN a birth? Now imagine being on the other side of the equation! It's amazing we aren't all born with PTSD.

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IncRnd超过 7 年前

Another thought is that babies knowledge of the world is want and pain. Give them a break. They want to go back to the pleasant place they just came from.