BehindTheMedspeak: Wired–up babies

Above, one of more than 50 babies from 5 to 9 months old whose brains — and minds — are currently being studied using state–of–the-art noninvasive technology.

128 electronic sensors are woven together into an electrode cap to form a "geodesic net" to record real–time brain response to specific stimuli — when the baby watches certain pictures or hears certain sounds, for example.

The technology, which looks fearsome but is actually completely painless, is called Event–Related–Potential.

It measures the electrical activity produced by the brain in response to a sensory stimulus or associated with the execution of a motor, cognitive, or psychophysiological task.

Dr. Andrea Berger at Ben–Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, along with Michael Posner at the University of Oregon, is leading the studies.

Berger told Ranit Mishori, in a story in Tuesday's Washington Post Health section, that such experiments would help them know more about "how babies perceive the world and understand it.... This can have implications for designing toys, interventions and education programs for infants."

The shape of things to come?