This second edition discusses the significant milestones of early brain development and the emergence of consciousness, within and outside the mother’s environment, focusing on the preterm infant. The book offers new insights and perspectives on issues concerning fetal pain, awareness in newborns, and the effects of digital media on the developing infant brain. The second edition updates coverage of the default mode network and its role in the emergence of consciousness. In addition, the book provides historic and philosophical insights into infant brain development and the emergence of consciousness. It describes the models of consciousness (e.g., the global neuronal workspace and the integration information theory) and how they apply to the fetus and infant.

Key areas of coverage include:

1.    Brain patterning, neural proliferation, and migration.
2.    The stress of being born and first breaths.
3.    The preterm brain.
4.    Awareness of pain.
5.    The language instinct.
6.    Parenting and stimulating the brain of the child.
7.    The moral status of the fetus and the infant.

The second edition of Infant Brain Development is an invaluable resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians and related professionals in developmental psychology, pediatrics, cognitive neuroscience, neurobiology, neuroscience, clinical social work, public health, medical ethics, obstetrics, nursing, and all related disciplines.

Hugo Lagercrantz, M.D., Ph.D., was appointed professor of pediatrics at the Karolinska Institute 1989. He was director of the Neonatal Programme at the Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital until 2004. Dr. Lagercrantz is currently editor-in-chief for Acta Paediatrica. He has been a member of the Nobel Prize Assembly for physiology or medicine. Dr. Lagercrantz found that the fetus mobilizes very high levels of catecholamines during normal birth and coined the expression “The stress of being born” (Scientific American 1986). This stress seems to be of vital importance for neonatal adaptation. In addition, Dr. Lagercrantz studied apnea of prematurity and the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Most recently, his research has focused on how consciousness emerges and what happens when there is an abnormal development of the brain. He has also been involved in the finding of a spontaneous resting activity in the newborn brain – showing that it is not “a blank slate”. Dr. Lagercrantz is the main editor of the book, Newborn Brain: Neuroscience and Clinical Applications (Cambridge University Press 2002 and 2010) and sole author of the first edition of Infant Brain Development (Springer, 2016). He is now an emeritus professor.

Nelly Padilla, M.D., holds two doctorates in Pediatrics and Neuroscience. She is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and an Affiliated Researcher at Karolinska Institutet. Her work bridges clinical pediatrics and neonatal neuroscience, examining how extreme prematurity shapes brain development and long-term outcomes. Using longitudinal MRI and advanced computational analyses, she has provided new insights suggesting that in late childhood the extremely preterm brain may remain relatively sensorimotor-weighted, with weaker maturation of networks supporting complex thinking and self-control. In parallel to her academic work, she maintains a clinical practice in pediatrics and neonatology. She collaborates with interdisciplinary teams, including engineers and physicists, to translate advanced neuroimaging into clinically meaningful insights. Dr. Padilla is an Adjunct Editor of Acta Paediatrica and has co-authored peer-reviewed work with Hugo Lagercrantz on the emergence of consciousness in early life.