Social development in infancy: Neural, behavioral, and cognitive influences across the first year of life

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

In the first year of life, infants become increasingly active participants in the social world around them. The development of social behavior is impacted by the caregiving environment, as well as by underlying cognitive processes, such as attention modulation and executive function. Early social development sets a foundation for long-term outcomes, such as language, academic achievement, and socioemotional abilities. Understanding the influences related to infant social behavior is valuable for early identification of deficits and interventions to increase social competency in both typically and atypically developing populations. Understanding the development of these social processes requires research early in infancy when they first become measurable and a longitudinal approach to conceptualize change across the first year.
The three studies included in this symposium will examine social processing during infancy and longitudinal associations with attention, neural function, and cognition. Using multiple methodologies, they explore infant social development as a complex process that is influenced by aspects of the caregiving context and attentional processes which allow infants to engage in the social world. The first study describes modulation of prefrontal cortex activation in response to social stimuli as a function of maternal engagement. The second study examines the dynamic association between attentional engagement and joint attention in infants. Finally, the third study discusses executive function as a predictor of joint attention across infancy. The discussant will situate these papers within the typical and atypical developmental literature and expound on future directions and implications of the research on infant social behavior.

Sub Unit

• Social Cognition

Chair

• Alleyne Patricia Ross Broomell, Western Carolina University

Discussant

• Peter Clive Mundy, University of California - Davis

Individual Presentations

• Maternal engagement is associated with differences in infants’ brain and attentional responses to threat - Presenting Author: Cat Thrasher, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Kathleen Krol, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Non-Presenting Author: Tobias Grossmann, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

• Associations between visual attention and joint attention in infancy - Presenting Author: Brenda J Salley, University of Kansas Medical Center; Non-Presenting Author: Corinne Walker, University of Kansas Medical Center

• Six-month executive function predicts joint attention across the first year - Presenting Author: Alleyne Patricia Ross Broomell, Western Carolina University; Non-Presenting Author: Nina Andre, Western Carolina University; Non-Presenting Author: Martha Ann Bell, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University