Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of My Weird Prompts. I am Corn, and I am sitting here in our living room in Jerusalem with my brother, the one and only Herman Poppleberry.
Hello, hello. It is great to be here. Herman Poppleberry at your service. We have got a really special one today, Corn. Our housemate Daniel sent us a voice memo, and it is a bit more personal than usual. He was asking about his son, little Ezra, who is about six or seven months old now.
Yeah, I have been seeing a lot of Ezra around the house lately. Daniel calls him the Onion Boy or the Carrot Cake Man, which is just hilarious. But he raised a really profound question. When we look at a baby that age, what is actually going on in there? We see them staring at a water bottle for twenty minutes or laughing at a funny face, but what is the internal experience like?
It is such a fascinating stage of development. Six to seven months is really a sweet spot in human growth. It is this transition period where they are moving from being these sort of passive observers of the world to becoming active participants. They are starting to sit up, they are starting to reach, and their brains are just on fire with new connections.
I love that Daniel mentioned the water bottle. I have seen him carry Ezra around the kitchen, and Ezra just looks at everything like it is the most incredible thing he has ever seen. To us, a fridge is a fridge. To him, it is this massive, cold, humming monolith with shiny surfaces. So, Herman, let us start with the basics. What is Ezra actually seeing at six months? Is his vision like ours yet?
Not quite, but it is getting very close. At birth, a baby's vision is pretty poor, maybe twenty over four hundred. Everything is a blurry wash of light and shadow. But by six or seven months, their visual acuity has improved dramatically, usually to around twenty over forty. They can see across the room, they can track fast-moving objects, and most importantly, they have developed depth perception.
Depth perception is a big one. That is the binocular vision, right? Where the brain blends the images from both eyes to see in three dimensions?
Exactly. This is around the time they start to understand that the world has three dimensions. There is a famous psychological study from the nineteen sixties called the visual cliff experiment, conducted by Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk. They put babies on a glass table where half the table has a checkered pattern right under the glass, and the other half has the pattern several feet below, creating the illusion of a drop-off. Younger babies will just crawl right over the cliff because they do not see the depth. But by six or seven months, they start to hesitate. They see the drop and they get cautious.
That is incredible. So Ezra is literally seeing the world in three dimensions for the first time in his life. That explains why he is so fascinated by reaching for things. He is testing his new superpower.
He really is. And his color vision is also fully developed now. When they are born, they mostly see high contrast, like black and white. But by six months, they can distinguish between subtle shades of red, blue, and yellow. So when he is looking at that water bottle, he is not just seeing a shape, he is seeing the way the light refracts through the plastic, the blue of the label, the condensation on the outside. It is a sensory explosion.
What about hearing? Daniel mentioned that Ezra makes these funny sounds and then Daniel makes them back. We do that a lot in the house. Is he actually processing language, or is it just noise to him?
This is where it gets really cool. At six or seven months, babies are what scientists call universal listeners. Up until this point, a baby can actually distinguish between the sounds of every single language on Earth. If you play a sound from a language like Hindi or Mandarin that does not exist in English, a six-month-old can hear the difference. But right around now, the brain starts to specialize.
So he is starting to filter out the sounds that do not matter for his environment?
Exactly. It is a process called phonemic narrowing. His brain is starting to realize, okay, I live in a house where people speak English and Hebrew, so these are the sounds I need to pay attention to. He is starting to map the phonemes of his native languages. He might not know what the words mean yet, but he is learning the rhythm, the cadence, and the specific building blocks of speech. When Daniel makes those sounds back to him, he is reinforcing those neural pathways.
I have noticed that Ezra responds a lot more to high-pitched voices. We all tend to talk to him in that silly baby voice, even though we try to act like serious adults. Is there a reason for that?
There is. It is called motherese or parentese. Research shows that babies are naturally tuned to higher frequencies and exaggerated melodic contours. It is easier for their developing auditory cortex to track. The slow, rhythmic nature of baby talk helps them segment the stream of sound into individual units. So, even though we feel silly, we are actually helping him decode the complexity of human language.
That makes me feel a bit better about my Onion Boy songs. But let us talk about the brain itself. Daniel asked what is going on in there. I have heard that babies have way more brain cells than adults. Is that true?
It is not necessarily that they have more neurons, but they have a massive surplus of synapses, the connections between neurons. At six or seven months, a baby's brain is in a state of synaptogenesis. It is creating millions of new connections every second. In some parts of the brain, a six-month-old has twice as many synapses as you or I do.
Twice as many? That sounds like it would be overwhelming. Like having a computer with way too many wires crossed.
In a way, it is. This is why everything is so fascinating to them. Their brains are incredibly plastic, meaning they are ready to learn anything. But it is also inefficient. Over the next few years, the brain will go through a process called synaptic pruning, where it cuts away the connections that are not being used and strengthens the ones that are. It is like carving a statue out of a block of marble. Right now, Ezra is the whole block of marble, full of infinite possibilities.
That is a beautiful analogy. So, when he is staring at the fridge, he is literally building the architecture of his mind. But what is he thinking? Does he have a sense of self? Does he know he is Ezra?
That is the million-dollar question. Most developmental psychologists believe that at six months, the sense of a separate self is still very fuzzy. He probably does not realize that he is a distinct entity from his parents or the environment. He is more like a focal point of experience. There is no I in his head yet, just a series of sensations and reactions.
So it is just a pure flow of experience. Hunger, cold, warmth, the sight of a smiling face, the sound of a voice. It sounds almost meditative.
It really is. But he is starting to develop something called object permanence. This is a huge cognitive milestone that usually happens between six and nine months. Before this, if you hide a toy under a blanket, the baby thinks it has literally ceased to exist. Out of sight, out of mind. But at Ezra's age, he is starting to realize that things continue to exist even when he cannot see them.
Is that why peek-a-boo is so popular at this age?
Exactly. Peek-a-boo is basically a high-stakes thriller for a six-month-old. When you cover your face, you are gone. You have vanished from the universe. And then, suddenly, you reappear. It is a shocking, delightful surprise. As they get closer to seven or eight months, they start to anticipate your return. They are learning to hold a mental representation of you in their working memory.
I have seen Daniel do this with Ezra's favorite stuffed animal. He will hide it behind his back, and Ezra will actually lean around to try and find it. It is like you can see the gears turning in his head. He is thinking, I know that carrot is back there somewhere.
That is a perfect example of working memory in action. He is moving from simple reflexes to intentional behavior. He is forming hypotheses about how the world works. If I drop this spoon, does it make a sound? Yes. If I drop it again, does it make the same sound? He is a little scientist, constantly running experiments.
It is funny you say that because Daniel mentioned how Ezra will just look at a water bottle for thirty minutes. To us, it is boring. But to him, it is a mystery to be solved. He is looking at the reflections, the way the water moves, the sound the plastic makes when he squeezes it. He is gathering data.
And he is using all his senses to do it. You have probably noticed that everything goes into the mouth at this age.
Oh, definitely. Everything. Keys, toys, fingers, the edge of the table if he can reach it.
That is because the mouth is one of the most sensitive parts of a baby's body. It has more nerve endings per square millimeter than almost anywhere else. For a six-month-old, mouthing an object is like a high-resolution tactile scan. They are learning about texture, temperature, density, and taste all at once. It is a vital part of their cognitive development, even if it is a bit messy for the parents.
So when we tell a baby, do not put that in your mouth, we are basically telling a scientist, do not use your microscope.
Precisely. Obviously, we have to keep them safe from choking hazards and germs, but that drive to explore through taste and touch is fundamental. It is how they categorize the world. This is soft, this is hard, this is cold, this is delicious, this is gross.
Let us talk about the emotional side of things. Daniel mentioned that Ezra seems happy, and he asks if he is doing it right. I see Ezra light up when Daniel walks into the room. Is that a conscious emotional connection, or is it just a biological response to a caregiver?
It is both, and they are inextricably linked. At six or seven months, babies are developing what we call primary attachments. They are starting to distinguish between familiar people and strangers. This is also the age where stranger anxiety can start to kick in. They realize that not all humans are the same. There is a special category for mom and dad.
And they are starting to use social referencing, right? I have noticed that if Ezra falls or hears a loud noise, he immediately looks at Daniel or Hannah to see how they are reacting.
Yes, social referencing is a huge part of their emotional intelligence. They are looking for cues on how to feel. If Daniel looks scared, Ezra will probably cry. If Daniel laughs and says, whoops, you are okay, Ezra will likely stay calm. He is learning to regulate his own emotions by mirroring the people he trusts. It is a beautiful feedback loop of security and learning.
It is interesting because Daniel mentioned he feels old becoming a father at thirty-six. But in a way, having that maturity probably helps with that emotional regulation. He can be that calm anchor for Ezra.
Absolutely. And that sense of security is what allows Ezra to explore. If he knows he has a safe base to return to, he feels confident enough to turn his attention to the water bottle or the fridge. It is the foundation of all future learning.
I want to go back to the brain for a second. You mentioned that the brain is about fifty percent of its adult size at this age. That seems huge for such a small person.
It is. The human brain grows at an incredible rate in the first year. By age one, it will be about seventy percent of its adult size. But here is the kicker, Corn. Even though the brain is smaller, it uses a massive amount of energy. A baby's brain can consume up to sixty percent of the body's total glucose.
Sixty percent? No wonder they sleep so much and eat so often. Their heads are basically high-powered supercomputers running on overdrive.
Exactly. All that synaptogenesis, all that sensory processing, all that learning requires an immense amount of fuel. When Ezra is staring at that water bottle, he is burning through glucose like a marathon runner. It looks like he is just sitting there, but internally, he is doing some of the most intense work a human being will ever do.
That really puts it into perspective. It is not just idle curiosity. It is a biological mandate. He has to learn. He has to process. He has to build that mind.
And he is also starting to understand cause and effect on a deeper level. Around six or seven months, babies begin to realize that their actions have consequences. If I push this button, the toy makes a noise. If I pull my dad's hair, he says ouch. This is the beginning of the sense of agency. The realization that I can change the world around me.
I have definitely seen him testing that agency. Especially with the hair pulling. Or grabbing glasses. He is very interested in glasses.
Faces are the most interesting things in the world to a baby. We have specialized areas in our brain, like the fusiform face area, that are dedicated to processing faces. At six months, Ezra is an expert at reading facial expressions. He can tell if you are happy, sad, or surprised. He is also starting to follow your gaze. If you look at something, he will turn his head to see what you are looking at. That is called joint attention.
Joint attention. That feels like a very human thing. Like we are sharing an experience.
It is one of the foundations of human culture. It is how we share information and create a common world. When Daniel points at a bird and says, look, Ezra, a bird, and Ezra looks, they are engaging in a sophisticated social act. They are focusing on the same thing and acknowledging that they are both seeing it. It is the beginning of communication.
It is amazing how much is happening under the surface. To a casual observer, a six-month-old is just a cute baby who makes funny noises. But when you look at the neurology and the psychology, it is this incredibly complex, high-speed journey of discovery.
It really is. And to Daniel's point about what he should be doing, the answer is exactly what he is doing. Interacting, making faces, singing silly songs, letting him explore safe objects. The most important thing for a baby's brain development is what researchers call serve and return.
Serve and return. Like tennis?
Exactly. The baby does something, a sound, a gesture, a look, that is the serve. The parent responds with a word, a touch, or a smile, that is the return. These simple interactions are what build the architecture of the brain. You do not need fancy educational toys or flashcards. You just need that human connection.
That is very reassuring. I think sometimes parents today feel so much pressure to optimize every second of their child's life. But it sounds like just being a present, responsive housemate or parent is the best thing you can do.
It truly is. The brain is designed to learn from social interaction. It is our greatest survival strategy. Ezra does not need a tablet; he needs Daniel's face and the occasional water bottle.
I have to ask about the language thing again. You said they are universal listeners. If we wanted Ezra to be a polyglot, is this the time we should be blasting him with different languages?
Well, the research shows that babies learn language best from live human interaction, not from recordings or television. If he had someone in the house speaking another language to him regularly, he would absolutely pick up those phonemes and keep that window open longer. But just playing a recording of French verbs probably will not do much. The social component is key. The brain needs to know that this information is relevant for social survival.
That makes sense. Everything is filtered through that social lens. I also wonder about memory. Daniel said none of us can remember being six months old. Why is that? If his brain is so active and he is learning so much, why does it all vanish?
That is a phenomenon called infantile amnesia. Most people cannot remember anything before the age of three or four. There are a few theories why. One is that the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain responsible for forming long-term memories, is still very much under construction. Another theory is that because we do not have language yet at six months, we do not have a way to encode or store those memories in a way that our adult, language-based minds can access later.
So the memories are there, but the filing system is incompatible with our later software?
In a way, yes. But even if we do not have conscious memories, those early experiences are stored in what we call implicit memory. They shape our emotional responses, our sense of security, and our basic understanding of how the world works. The love and care Ezra is getting now are being hard-wired into his nervous system, even if he will not remember the specific Onion Boy songs twenty years from now.
That is a profound thought. We are building the foundation of a person, and the foundation is hidden beneath the ground once the house is built. But if the foundation is solid, the house stands.
That is exactly right. And at six or seven months, that foundation is being reinforced every single day. Every time he is held, every time he is fed, every time someone laughs at his funny faces, he is learning that the world is a predictable, safe, and interesting place.
It is funny, Herman, you were talking about the visual cliff earlier. I was thinking about how that relates to his curiosity. He is starting to get mobile, right? He is rolling over, maybe starting to scoot or crawl soon.
Yes, that is usually the next big step. And mobility changes everything. Once a baby can move through space on their own, their spatial reasoning explodes. They start to understand things like over, under, and around. They also start to encounter more boundaries. No, do not touch that. Stay away from the stairs. This is when the social referencing we talked about becomes even more vital.
I can see that. He is going to be looking at Daniel even more to see where the boundaries are. It is like he is learning the laws of physics and the laws of the household at the same time.
He really is. It is a lot of work for a little guy. I also want to mention something called the statistical baby. Research by people like Alison Gopnik shows that babies are actually incredible at picking up statistical patterns in their environment.
Statistical patterns? Like, he is doing math?
In a subconscious way, yes. He is a Bayesian learner. He starts with a set of beliefs about the world, and every new piece of data he gets, he updates those beliefs. If a certain sound usually follows another sound, or if a certain action usually leads to a certain result, his brain tracks those probabilities. They are incredibly sensitive to things that are unexpected. If something happens that violates their expectations, they will stare at it much longer. That is how researchers know what babies are thinking. They measure looking time.
So if Ezra stares at something for a long time, it is because he is trying to update his internal model of the world. He is thinking, wait, that should not have happened, let me re-evaluate.
Exactly. It is a highly sophisticated way of learning that even our best artificial intelligence struggles to replicate. It is the miracle of biological evolution. We are born ready to learn. And that curiosity Daniel sees in Ezra, that total immersion in the simplest things, that is the pure, undistilled essence of human intelligence.
I think one of the most interesting things Daniel mentioned was how he feels like a goofball making funny sounds. But based on everything you are saying, that goofiness is actually a high-level educational intervention. The playfulness is where the learning happens.
It is. Play is the work of childhood. When you play with a baby, you are engaging them in a way that is perfectly tuned to their developmental needs. You are providing them with the sensory input, the emotional security, and the social feedback they need to grow. For Ezra, the environment is less important than the people in it. He is a social creature first and foremost. As long as he has his tribe, he is happy.
You know, we have talked a lot about the technical side, but I also want to touch on the sheer wonder of it. When I see Ezra, I am reminded of how much we take for granted. We forget that the world is actually a very strange and beautiful place. Seeing it through his eyes, even just by imagining it, is a great exercise.
It really is. It is a reminder to slow down and pay attention. To look at the water bottle, so to speak. To appreciate the reflections and the sounds and the textures of our own lives. We can learn a lot from six-month-olds.
We really can. So, Herman, if you had to give Daniel one piece of advice based on the science, what would it be?
I would say, keep doing exactly what you are doing. Trust your instincts. That feeling of being a goofball is a sign that you are connecting with him on his level. Do not worry about the future too much. Just enjoy this period where the world is new for both of you. He is building his brain, and you are the most important part of that construction project.
That is great advice. And I would add, do not worry about the nicknames. Onion Boy is a classic. He might be a bit embarrassed when he is twenty, but for now, it is part of the love. For all our listeners out there, if you have been enjoying this deep dive into the baby brain, we would really appreciate it if you could leave us a review on your podcast app or on Spotify.
It genuinely helps other curious people find the show. We love doing this, and your support means the world to us.
We have covered a lot today, from depth perception and universal listening to synaptogenesis and the visual cliff. It just shows how incredible the human experience is, right from the very beginning. If you want to find more of our episodes or if you want to send us a prompt of your own, you can visit our website at myweirdprompts.com.
We are also on Spotify and most other podcast platforms. Just search for My Weird Prompts. We would love to hear from you.
Well, I think that is a wrap for today. I am going to go see if Ezra is awake and maybe sing him a song about carrots. Until next time, everyone. This has been My Weird Prompts.
Thanks for listening. We will see you in the next one. Bye!
Take care, everyone. Bye!
