1-196 - Learning the Social World: Contingency in Infant-caregiver Interactions Influences Infant Brain and Behavioral Development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Complex social capacities (e.g., social contingency detection, communicative expressions, early indicators of empathy and prosociality) emerge during the first year of life and lay a foundation for later childhood social skills. Theory and empirical research suggest that these early social capacities may be fostered in face-to-face interactions with caregivers who adapt their behavior in response to infants’ cues in the form of contingent, reciprocal “serve-and-return” patterns. However, the mechanisms by which contingent infant-caregiver interactions influence early and later social development are still little explored or understood. Three studies (conducted across the U.S.A., U.K., and Israel) aim to address this gap. Together, these studies illustrate how specific aspects of infant-caregiver face-to-face interactions can influence developments in both brain and critical social cognitions in the first year of life. The first study examines the importance of consistency in contingent maternal responsiveness in longitudinally predicting infant contingency detection and imitation. The second study investigates longitudinal relations between contingent maternal responsiveness, emerging empathy, and infants’ resting and event-related brain (EEG) activity. The third study uses a clinical sample of infants with a facial anomaly (cleft lip/palate) to examine the specific role of maternal gaze patterns and mirroring in infant social behavior. The discussant—a prominent expert in the translational neuroscience of early parenting—will discuss implications for understanding behavioral and neural mechanisms through which maternal contingent responsiveness shapes infant development and how findings can inform early prevention and intervention efforts.

Sub Unit

• Social Cognition

Chair

• Lindsay C Bowman, University of California Davis

Discussant

• Philip Fisher, University of Oregon

Individual Presentations

• Consistency in Maternal Responsiveness across Early Infancy Predicts Later Social Behaviors - Presenting Author: Bethany Reeb-Sutherland, Florida International University

• Relations Between Maternal-Contingent-Responsiveness, Infant Brain, and Infant Social Behavior Over the First Year of Life - Presenting Author: Tahl Frenkel, Ziama Arkin Infancy Institute; Non-Presenting Author: Sofie Rousseau, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Ziama Arkin Infancy Institute; Non-Presenting Author: Lindsay C Bowman, University of California Davis

• The Role of Maternal Mirroring in Early Social Development: Elucidation Via Studying Infant Facial Anomaly - Presenting Author: Leonardo De Pascalis, University of Liverpool; Non-Presenting Author: Laura Bozicevic, University of Liverpool; Non-Presenting Author: Pier Francesco Ferrari, University of Parma; Non-Presenting Author: Kyla Vaillancourt, Kings College London; Non-Presenting Author: Louise Dalton, John Radcliffe Hospital; Non-Presenting Author: Tim Goodacre, John Radcliffe Hospital; Non-Presenting Author: Bhismadev Chakrabarti, University of Reading; Non-Presenting Author: Sarah Bicknell, University of Reading; Non-Presenting Author: Peter Cooper, University of Reading; Non-Presenting Author: Alan Stein, University of Oxford; Non-Presenting Author: Lynne Murray, University of Reading