[…] the story of human infancy that has been told by philosophers and medical and psychological sciences has been re-written. In place of the idea that infants are a-social and ego-centric there is a new understanding that a baby is born with a lively talent for interpersonal communion. The indulgent opinion of parents has received abundant confirmation from careful observational research. Thus micro-analyses of proto-conversations with two-month-olds have revealed that infants are endowed with a cerebral system that enables direct perception of interests and feelings in an other person and responsive attunement permitting delicate, emotionally regulated engagements. Like the processes of altercentric participation found by Bråten (1998a, 2002) to be exhibited in early cultural learning situations, probably subserved by the mirror system recently discovered by Rizzolatti and his co-workers and identified in the human brain (Rizzolatti & Arbib 1998), these characteristics break radically with the assumptions in Freudian and Piagetian traditions which implied a long developmental period of de-centration before sociality and intersubjectivity could emerge.
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BRÅTEN, Stein and TREVARTHEN, Colwyn, 2007. From infant intersubjectivity and participant movements to simulation and conversation in cultural common sense. In: On being moved. Benjamins Publishing Amsterdam. p. 20–34. Available from: torrossa.com 
[Accessed 17 January 2024].
BRÅTEN, Stein (ed.), 2007. On being moved: from mirror neurons to empathy. Amsterdam ; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. Advances in consciousness research, v. 68. ISBN 978-90-272-5204-3.
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