summary: Researchers found that caregiver cognition was associated with infants’ visual perception and brain function. This study revealed that infants’ ability to detect visual changes is related to caregiver visual perception and behavioral control.
Brain imaging also showed similarities in how caregivers and infants process information in the parietal cortex, a brain region important for attention and memory. These findings highlight the cognitive connection between caregivers and infants during the first year of life and may lead to tailored interventions for early development.
important facts:
- Caregiver cognition is related to infant visual perception and brain function.
- Both infants and caregivers show similar brain activity in the parietal cortex.
- This study suggests the possibility of tailored interventions based on caregiver behavior.
sauce: University of Nottingham
A new study using experimental and brain imaging tools shows a link between caregiver and child cognition.
Researchers from the University of Nottingham’s School of Psychology investigated visual perception, which is critical to how young children navigate the world around them, engage with objects and learn new concepts. The research team investigated whether caregivers’ cognitive functioning was associated with infants’ visual perception.
The study was published in the journal Infant behavior and development and infant development.
Around 90 East Midlands families with infants aged between six and 10 months took part in the study, conducted by the Infant and Young Child Laboratory at the University of Nottingham’s School of Psychology. During the visit, caregivers and their infants participated in experimental tasks, and the researchers measured their behavioral responses and brain function using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
In this technology, caregivers and infants wear hats equipped with sensors that emit near-infrared light to measure brain function. Toddlers and their parents were shown colorful, changing shapes on a television screen, and the researchers looked at how they looked and how they switched their gaze between shapes.
Caregivers also completed an inhibitory control task (how they respond to certain stimuli and inhibit their responses to other stimuli) and a questionnaire assessing how well they control their behavior.
The researchers found that young children’s visual perception is related to two aspects of their caregivers’ cognition: their own visual perception and behavioral control. Specifically, infants’ ability to detect change was associated with caregivers’ ability to detect change and effectively monitor and/or inhibit infant behavior.
In addition to behavioral links, the research team also found connections between caregivers and infants’ brain functions, including areas in the parietal cortex that are important for attention to objects in space, working memory, and attention. I also discovered something.
Dr. Sobhana Wijakumar, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, led the study. She said: “We are excited about these findings. We know that from late in development there is a link between caregiver cognition and child cognition, both in behavior and brain function. It is encouraging to see these associations in the first year of life.
“In the future, these findings could be used to customize interventions based on caregiver behavioral preferences. We also hope that these associations will help caregivers and infants We’re also excited about the next phase of our research, which will address whether this is related to how we interact during playtime.”
One family member said, “It’s interesting to know that there is a link between my own and my baby’s behavior and brain development. As they get older, they begin to ‘imitate’ our behavior.” We know that, but when you try to find out how our brains are wired as well, it’s surprising. ”
About this cognitive and neurodevelopmental research news
author: Sobhana Wijakumar
sauce: University of Nottingham
contact: Sobhana Wijakumar – University of Nottingham
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Open access.
“Relationship between caregivers and infant visual neurocognitionWritten by Sobhana Wijakumar et al. Infant behavior and development
Open access.
“Caregivers’ executive functions are associated with infants’ visual working memory.Written by Sobhana Wijakumar et al. infant development
abstract
Relationship between caregivers and infant visual neurocognition
Previous studies have shown that caregiver attention shapes infants’ visual perception through dyadic interactions. Is this association measurable when visual perception is objectively measured in caregivers and infants using comparable experimental paradigms?
In the current study, we presented infants (N = 86) and caregivers (N = 78) with age-specific variants of the same preferentially looking visual perception task and determined that caregivers’ visual perception was related to infants’ visual perception. I investigated whether it is. On each trial of the task, two colored shapes were flashed side by side.
On the “unchanging” side, the color of the shape does not change. On the “change” side, one shape changed color with each flash. Load was varied by changing the number of shapes across trials (low, medium, high load). As both infants and caregivers engaged in this task, we used video recordings to extract visual dynamics and functional near-infrared spectroscopy to extract brain function.
Change preference (CP) scores, which are the time spent looking at the changing side divided by the total viewing time, showed load-dependent fluctuations for both infants and caregivers. Both groups had the highest CP scores during low loads.
Furthermore, the higher the caregiver’s CP score, the higher the infant’s CP score at low load. Both infants and caregivers engaged standard regions of the fronto-parietal network involved in visual perception.
Importantly, higher caregiver CP scores were associated with greater activation in the left superior parietal lobule in younger infants, a region involved in visuospatial attention allocation and working memory maintenance. .
Furthermore, there was spatial overlap between ability-dependent areas of the right parietal cortex in caregivers and younger infants.
Our findings provide the first evidence of genetically related visual neurocognitive associations between caregivers and their children during the first year of life.
abstract
Caregiver executive function is associated with infant visual working memory
Caregivers’ executive function (EF) plays an essential role in shaping cognitive development.
Here, we investigated caregivers’ EF abilities (86 caregivers, 86 caregivers). average age= 33.4 years, SD = 4.5) was associated with visual working memory (VWM) in infants (86 female infants, mean age = 250.6 days, SD = 35.8).
The BRIEF-A was used to assess caregivers’ EF, and a preferential search task combined with fNIRS was used to assess infants’ VWM function.
Our findings show that better caregiver behavioral control leads to better VWM performance, greater lateralization of the parietal region, greater lateralization of the parietal region, and more lateralization of the frontal region. was associated with greater inhibition, whereas better caregiver metacognition and emotion regulation was associated with greater right-lateralized temporal inhibition in infants.
Taken together, these associations suggest that improved caregiver EF abilities shape visuospatial attention and memory, guide attachment to task-related goals, and reduce children’s attention spans as early as the first year of life. This suggests that there is a possibility of suppressing the
