Emerging neuroscience suggests that consciousness may appear much earlier than previously thought, with evidence showing newborns can perceive and respond to stimuli consciously. Studies using brain imaging and the oddball paradigm reveal that infants as young as one day old display neural patterns linked to attention and expectation, such as the attentional blink—a sign of conscious processing. These brain responses indicate that newborns aren't passive blank slates but active participants in their sensory world. Even fetuses after 24 weeks may possess the necessary brain structures for conscious experience, raising urgent ethical questions about medical practices like surgery without anesthesia. This shift in understanding redefines infancy as a state of engagement rather than emptiness, transforming how we view the start of human perception and personhood.