Before Language: Fruição and Belonging in the Pre-Linguistic Brain
Before Language: Fruição and Belonging in the Pre-Linguistic Brain
First-Person Consciousness Brain Bee Ideas
Before words, there is life.
Before speech, there is awareness.
Human experience does not begin in language — it begins in rhythm, in the pulse that moves blood, breath, and the cerebral oxygenation of the newborn.
In my concepts, what we call mind is a continuous flow between interoception (feeling the body from within) and proprioception (feeling the body in space).
I call this the Damasian Mind — a living instance of embodied consciousness, where thinking and sensing are not yet divided.
In this early life state, cognition emerges as movement and energetic exchange, not as thought.
Neonatal physiology reveals that even before the first sound, the brain is already organizing the world — hemodynamically, respiratorily, and affectively.
It is here that Decolonial Neuroscience meets biology: consciousness is first metabolic, then symbolic.
sfn 2025
NIRS EEG ERP BCI fNIRS
Decolonial Neuroscience
Brain Bee Ideas
Zone 2: The Homeostasis of Fruição
In my concepts, Zone 2 is the territory of physiological Fruição — the point where body and mind reach metabolic balance, allowing thought to flow effortlessly.
In newborns, this state is spontaneous. The infant oscillates naturally between activation and rest, self-regulating cerebral oxygen consumption according to respiratory rhythm.
Research by Epain et al. (2025) on emotional and physiological responses to music shows that low frequencies amplify coherence between auditory and autonomic systems.
Although studied in adults, the principle mirrors the neonatal state: the body-sound resonance that sustains Zone 2 is already alive in the cradle.
At Artinis Medical Systems, neonatal fNIRS studies confirm the same principle: attention and rest are hemodynamic states, not cognitive achievements.
In Developing Customized NIRS-EEG for Infant Sleep Research, researchers demonstrated that during sleep, infants alternate predictable cycles of cerebral perfusion and electrical activity — as if breathing thought itself.
Another study, Near-Infrared Spectroscopy for Neonatal Sleep Classification, showed distinct oxygenation signatures for active and quiet sleep, revealing that pre-linguistic consciousness is a physiological rhythm of Fruição.
NIRS fNIRS Pertencimento Pre-Linguistic Brain SfN 2025
Interoception: The First Language
Interoception — the perception of the body from within — is the first language of being.
The newborn learns to exist by modulating sensations of heat, pressure, heartbeat, and breath long before recognizing sound or face.
The study Respiratory Rate Extraction from Neonatal NIRS Signals demonstrated that respiratory frequency can be extracted directly from fNIRS data, exposing a tight coupling between breathing and cerebral oxygenation from the earliest days of life.
This coupling shows that interoception functions as an internal measurement system — the body sensing itself to maintain conscious stability.
It is the physiological expression of the Damasian Mind, where sensing and knowing have not yet been separated.
Skin That Thinks: The Body as Territory of Belonging
Touch is the first form of empathy.
The infant does not think about the other — it feels the other.
The skin is the first political and spiritual territory.
The study Cerebral Hemodynamic Response to a Therapeutic Bed for Procedural Pain Management in Preterm Infants (Calmer) showed that simple tactile contact — a bed simulating maternal warmth and skin texture — significantly reduces pain responses and reorganizes cerebral blood flow in preterm infants.
This demonstrates that physical belonging is a natural technology of regulation, preceding language and cognition.
In my framework, this phenomenon expresses Human Quorum Sensing (QSH): the biological capacity to regulate one’s physiological state through the density of another’s presence.
Just as bacteria alter behavior based on the chemical density of their surroundings, humans modulate consciousness through proximity and shared emotion.
For the newborn, warmth and touch maintain collective Zone 2, preventing the energetic collapse of physiological solitude.
Metabolism as Consciousness
Every subjective experience has a metabolic correlate.
Consciousness is the rhythmic coordination of energy, blood, and breath.
Even before birth, the fetal brain displays measurable fluctuations in oxygenation.
The study Fetal Oxygenation Measurement Using Wireless NIRS demonstrated that the fetal brain regulates its perfusion in synchrony with maternal respiration.
This self-regulation is the primordial form of what will later become attention.
It is the embryo of Fruição — the ability to be present without effort, sustained by a dynamic equilibrium between surrender and metabolism.
The fetus, before language, already practices what adults attempt to recover through meditation: lucid rest within the flow of life.
Tensional Selves and the Birth of Thought
At the beginning of life, every stimulus — sound, light, touch — produces a bodily tension that reorganizes the system.
I call these micro-states Tensional Selves: transient configurations of being that later become emotions, beliefs, and action patterns.
The study Changes in Cerebral Oxygenation During Cranial Ultrasound in Preterm Infants shows that even a neutral stimulus, such as gentle contact from an ultrasound probe on the fontanelle, alters cortical oxygenation.
The body, therefore, thinks through what touches it.
Each tension is a metabolic learning moment.
The pre-linguistic infant accumulates experiences of coherence and rupture that sculpt the future topology of consciousness.
This learning is rhythmic, not conceptual — the birth of interoceptive memory, the remembrance of what felt good because it kept the body in flow.
Relational Plasticity and Co-Regulation
Recent EEG–fNIRS hyperscanning studies by NIRx in adolescents and adults show that brains engaged in cooperative interaction exhibit inter-hemodynamic coherence — synchronized blood flow and neural oscillations.
The same principle applies to the mother-infant dyad.
Co-regulation is the first exercise of Relational Plasticity, in which the nervous system learns to reshape itself through the presence of another.
This is the physiological root of empathy:
thinking with the other before thinking about the other.
In pre-linguistic life, this process is total — the infant is empathy, unbounded by cognitive separation.
A Decolonial Neuroscience of Early Life
Western science has long described the newborn as incomplete — passive, “in development.”
Decolonial Neuroscience proposes another view: the infant is already complete in its mode of consciousness.
Its mind is pre-semantic but post-biological — a vibrant field of chemical, electrical, and affective exchange.
While colonial epistemologies split reason from body, the newborn embodies the lost unity.
It lives in continuous Zone 2, where there is no difference between existing and enjoying — between metabolism and meaning.
It is this state that societies should preserve, not domesticate.
Conclusion
Before speech, there is belonging.
Before language, there is rhythm.
Before culture, there is life in Zone 2 — the silent balance between flowing blood and entering air.
Artinis’ neonatal research reveals that the brain is born already sensing its own flow and responding to care.
These studies confirm, with empirical clarity, that consciousness is not a product of language — it precedes it.
Fruição, the Damasian Mind, Human Quorum Sensing, and Tensional Selves are not metaphors.
They are bioethical descriptions of existence — life learning to stabilize itself before learning to speak.
The task of modern neuroscience is to reconnect with this physiological wisdom:
to remember that every thought begins as breath,
and every word was once oxygenated silence.
References – Artinis Medical Systems & Related Publications (2024–2025)
Developing Customized NIRS-EEG for Infant Sleep Research.
Near-Infrared Spectroscopy for Neonatal Sleep Classification.
Respiratory Rate Extraction from Neonatal NIRS Signals.
Cerebral Hemodynamic Response to a Therapeutic Bed for Procedural Pain Management in Preterm Infants (Calmer).
Fetal Oxygenation Measurement Using Wireless NIRS.
Changes in Cerebral Oxygenation During Cranial Ultrasound in Preterm Infants.
Epain et al. (2025). Bass Amplification Impacts Emotional, Neural and Physiological Responses to Music.
Gehrke et al. (2025). Neuroadaptive Haptics for Adaptive XR Systems.
El Cerebro Colectivo: Hyperscanning y el Nacimiento de la Neurociencia Decolonial
The Collective Brain: Hyperscanning and the Birth of Decolonial Neuroscience
O Cérebro Coletivo: Hyperscanning e o Nascimento da Neurociência Decolonial
Antes del Lenguaje: Fruição y Pertenencia en el Cerebro Prelingüístico
Before Language: Fruição and Belonging in the Pre-Linguistic Brain
Antes da Palavra: Fruição e Pertencimento no Cérebro Pré-Linguístico
Hyperscanning y Pertenencia Colectiva: El Cerebro que Piensa con Otros
Hyperscanning and Collective Belonging: The Brain That Thinks with Others
Hyperscanning e Pertencimento Coletivo: O Cérebro que Pensa com Outros
Luz y Sangre: Acoplamiento Neurovascular y el Ritmo de la Atención
Light and Blood: Neurovascular Coupling and the Rhythm of Attention
Luz e Sangue: Acoplamento Neurovascular e o Ritmo da Atenção
Neurofeedback Multimodal: EEG–fNIRS y la Plasticidad del Gesto Mental
Multimodal Neurofeedback: EEG–fNIRS and the Plasticity of the Mental Gesture
Neurofeedback Multimodal: EEG–fNIRS e a Plasticidade do Gesto Mental
Audiovisual y Movimiento: Cómo el Cerebro Cambia de Tarea Mientras Camina
Audiovisual and Movement: How the Brain Switches Tasks While Walking
Audiovisual e Movimento: Como o Cérebro Troca de Tarefa Enquanto Caminha
Hápticos Neuroadaptativos: Cuando el Tacto Aprende del Cerebro
Neuroadaptive Haptics: When Touch Learns from the Brain
Haptics Neuroadaptativos: Quando o Toque Aprende com o Cérebro
La Recurrencia Neural Redibuja el Espacio Visual del Cerebro
Neural Recurrence Redesigns the Visual Space of the Brain
A Recorrência Neural Redesenha o Espaço Visual no Cérebro
EEG + fNIRS para BCI: El Dataset Definitivo de Imaginación Motora (2025)
EEG + fNIRS for BCI: The Definitive Motor Imagery Dataset (2025)
EEG + fNIRS para BCI: O Dataset Definitivo de Imagética Motora (2025)
Aprender Palabras, Desincronizar el Cerebro: El Ritmo Alfa-Beta de la Memoria Verbal
Learning Words, Desynchronizing the Brain: The Alpha–Beta Rhythm of Verbal Memory
Aprender Palavras, Desincronizar o Cérebro: O Ritmo Alfa-Beta da Memória Verbal
El Bajo, la Emoción y el EEG: Cuando la Música Mueve el Cuerpo Antes que la Mente
Bass, Emotion, and EEG: When Music Moves the Body Before the Mind
Bass, Emoção e EEG: Quando a Música Move o Corpo Antes da Mente
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#Decolonial #Neuroscience #SocialNeuroscience #CollectiveBrain #NeurocienciaDecolonial
#EmbodiedCognition #MenteDamasiana #Fruição #BodyTerritory #PertenenciaColectiva
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