When the Mind Comes to Live Inside the Body: The Ontogeny of the Perceptual Control Clock
Journal: Current Neuropharmacology
Website Link: https://benthamscience.com/article/12...
Published on: 27 September 2022
Author(s): Sari Goldstein Ferber*, Ronny Geva and Aron Weller
DOI: 10.2174/1570159X20666220411095508
Abstract
In this editorial, we discuss the neurobiological processes underlying the early emergence of awareness that we term the “when” and “how” the mind comes to live inside the body. We describe an accumulative developmental process starting during embryonic life and continuing to fetal and postnatal development, of coupling heart rate, body movements, and sleep states on the behavioural level with underlying mechanisms on the structural, functional, cellular, and molecular levels. A developmental perspective is proposed based on Perceptual Control Theory (PCT). This includes a developing sequence of modules starting from early sensing of neural intensities to early manifestation of human mindful capacities. We also address pharmacological treatments administered to preterm infants, which may interfere with this development, and highlight the need to consider this potential “side effect” of current pharmaceuticals when developing novel pharmacogenomic treatments.