I am sitting in a lab in London, holding my wriggling baby son in my arms, while two scientists gently try to remove a futuristic-looking cap from his head. The cap, which looks a bit like a swimming hat topped by a tangle of cables, is part of one of the most cutting-edge tools in infant research. It could reveal unprecedented insights into the minds of babies and transform our understanding of early development.

But right now, my 11-month-old son does not want to be studied.

“I’m sorry, baby,” says Maheen Siddiqui, a PhD student here at Birkbeck College’s Babylab, one of the world’s leading centres on infant research.

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