I err, therefore I am: Neural signature of error-monitoring predicts self-awareness in infants
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Self-reflection is central for human cognition, yet the mechanisms enabling our mind to construct a sense of self remain unclear. By investigating human infants during their second year of life, when a conceptual self is believed to emerge, we reveal a longitudinal link between early error-monitoring at 12 months and the emergence of a conceptual self 6 months later. In a gaze-contingent match-to-sample paradigm with concurrent eye-tracking and EEG, we find that internal error-monitoring (error-related negativity, ERN) at 12 months not only precedes but developmentally predicts the emergence of self-representation (mirror self-recognition) six months later, regardless of age or general development. Additionally, we show that only infants who later self-recognised adjusted their behaviour post-error, slowing decisions and increasing visual exploration. The finding that internal error-monitoring developmentally predicts the emergence of self-representation strongly supports that, rather than presupposing a self, metacognition may be functionally involved in building conceptual self-awareness in humans.
Authors: Cécile Gal, Dimitris Askitis, Katarina Begus
Institution: University of Copenhagen
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7127445319
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