Perceptual experiences are shaped by prior events, as argued by Predictive Processing and Active Inference frameworks. This paper examines how such experiences begin before birth, within the womb. A key but often neglected point is that humans develop inside another human body, a universal experience. The authors focus on the emergence of minimal selfhood in utero as a process of co-embodiment and co-homeostasis, emphasizing their interdependence. They conclude by discussing implications for debates on conscious experience, the minimal self, and social cognition.
Information-based metrics of neural activity can help quantify consciousness before and shortly after birth. Using fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG) in human fetuses and neonates, researchers evaluated measures of entropy, compressibility, and fractality. Lempel-Ziv-Complexity (LZC) was the most practical metric because it is unequivocal and requires low computational effort, whereas fractality and entropy measures need more parameter adjustments. Comparing a brain-activity channel with a control channel in neonates showed significant differences in most complexity metrics, serving as proof of concept. For fetal data, results were less clear, possibly due to leftover maternal signals. The inconsistency across metrics highlights challenges in using complexity metrics as neural correlates of consciousness.