From the adult perspective, babies may seem too young to understand what goes around them. But a new study found that babies as young as 5-months-old, too, have an adult-like consciousness.

The findings appear in the journal Science and found that despite the perplexing conversations babies have amongst themselves, they seem to have an adult understanding of the objects they see.

"Babies as early as 5 months, and probably earlier, are displaying the same neural aspects of consciousness as adults," Sid Kouider, lead author from the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, told The Los Angeles Times.

The researchers presented 80 babies at 5, 12 and 15 months old with images such as numbers and obscure pictures for milliseconds as their heads were connected to hundreds of electrodes to record the brain waves on an electroencephalography.

The images were also flashed for less than 200 milliseconds in adults and they were asked what they saw. These short interpretation times for both babies and adults made it difficult to comprehend, and thereby represented their non-conscious state.

However, as the images were shown at lengthier intervals their brain activities peaked, demonstrating that they consciously recognized the picture.

Researchers found that the 5-month-old had a delayed response but the activity increased for the older infants, signifying that the brain is developing the ability to perceive.

When comparing the results with the adults, they found the similarities were stronger between the older infants and adults compared to the slightly weaker patterns in the 5-month old babies.

This confirmed there was a "neural signature of consciousness" in babies, researchers stated, which means they found the neural signal that scripts the formation of visual consciousness.

However some researchers say the data needs to cover more ground and measuring brain waves with an MRI scanner isn't enough to determine the state of mind.

The investigators also pointed out that they still have to determine whether babies are aware of their environment, they're also looking at a better way to decipher their thoughts--a riddle everyone wants to get to the bottom of.

The recent study was part of the laboratory of Cognitive and Psycholinguistic Sciences, CPCA, a joint research group in Paris.