Infancy最新文献

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake infants has the potential to reveal how the early developing brain gives rise to cognition and behavior. However, awake infant fMRI poses significant methodological challenges that have hampered wider adoption. The present work takes stock after the collection of a substantial amount of awake infant fMRI data across multiple studies from two labs, at Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). These data were leveraged to glean insights on participant recruitment, experimental design, and data acquisition that could be useful to consider for future studies. Across 766 fMRI sessions with awake infants aged 1–36 months, the authors explored the factors that influenced how much usable data were obtained per session. The age of an infant predicted whether they would successfully enter the scanner (younger more likely) and, if they did enter, the number of minutes of functional data collected (linear, younger more) and retained after preprocessing with lab-specific protocols or harmonized motion exclusion thresholds (quadratic, 12–24 months more than younger and older). The amount of functional data retained was also influenced by assigned sex (female more), experimental paradigm (movies better than blocks and events), and stimulus content (social better than abstract). There were many differences in the research approach between labs making head-to-head comparisons difficult, but Yale was more likely to get infants into the scanner, MIT collected more data from infants who entered, and the amount of data retained after preprocessing did not differ statistically between labs (9 min). In addition, the authors assessed the value of attempting to collect multiple experiments per session, an approach that yielded more than one usable experiment averaging across all sessions. Although any given scan is unpredictable, these findings support the feasibility of awake infant fMRI and suggest practices to optimize future research.

Parents use digital media to manage children's emotions—known as media emotion regulation. While research has focused on toddlers/preschoolers, media emotion regulation may begin in early infancy, potentially influencing media habits and socio-emotional development. Guided by the DREAMER framework, this longitudinal study examined media emotion regulation among 163 mother-infant dyads when infants were 2, 3, 4, and 5 months old. We also examined maternal, family, and infant characteristics associated with media emotion regulation (e.g., maternal depression, smartphone use, infant stressful behavior) and potential changes in infant socio-emotional outcomes (e.g., infant clarity of cues, responsiveness to mother). Data sources included monthly surveys, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys, passive sensing of maternal smartphone use, and feeding observations at 2 and 5 months. Results revealed the prevalence of media emotion regulation increased from 12% at 2 months to 23% at 5 months. At 2 months, media emotion regulation was associated with greater maternal emotional dysregulation and negative perceptions of infant behavior. By 4 or 5 months, smartphone use and sensitivity began to be associated with media emotion regulation. These and other results suggest media emotion regulation may stem from maternal emotional dysregulation and stress during the early months but may become habitual over time.

While early life sets the stage for later learning, comparatively less is known about newborns' cognition than that of older infants. A striking example is the lack of consensus regarding the extent to which newborns spontaneously mimic gestures, and whether such behavior drives bonding and learning. Despite the theoretical importance of these questions, practical challenges limit researchers' ability to engage newborns in behavioral research. Webcam-based, asynchronous online studies have expanded developmental science's capacity to reach older infants. However, such scalable and replicable methods have yet to be deployed with younger infants. Taking a commonly-used neonatal mimicry paradigm as a test case, we assessed the feasibility of leveraging an open-source online platform (Children Helping Science) for asynchronous research with 0–6-week-olds and their caregivers. Caregivers modeled face movements to their 4–45 days-old infants (N = 29, N = 17 included) while webcams filmed their infants' responses; 13 dyads participated more than once (72 included test videos). Preliminary evidence suggested that infants do not mimic caregivers' tongue protrusions (Bayes Factor ∼ ⅓). Data on the mimicry of caregivers' mouth openings was inconclusive (⅓ < BF < 3). Additional analyses identified a target sample size for future studies. Finally, we asked whether caregivers perceived their newborns' behavior as imitative. Caregivers' perceptions of mimicry reflected infants' behaviors but did not align with an often-used metric of mimicry (“imitators”). These results demonstrate the feasibility of asynchronous online behavioral studies with newborns and provide a foundation for future research on neonatal mimicry of caregivers.

Inhibitory control, a core executive function, supports children's ability to manage automatic and prepotent responses and regulate behavior. Screen media may disrupt its development by displacing activities supporting self-regulation or overstimulating the attention system. While findings in preschoolers are mixed, infancy and toddlerhood may represent particularly sensitive periods due to young children's strong reliance on social learning and their limited ability to process screen content. This longitudinal study examined associations between toddlers' inhibitory control and both the duration and context of screen media exposure, specifically, background television and parental use of media for emotion regulation. Data were collected from 75 infants and their mothers at Time 1 (infant age range = 9–16 months; M = 11.8, SD = 1.4) and again approximately 19 months later at Time 2 (infant age M = 31.1, SD = 1.8). Mothers reported on screen time and background television at both times and on media emotion regulation at Time 2. At Time 2, children completed two inhibitory control tasks (Prohibition and Reverse Categorization), and parents rated their children's inhibitory control. Greater background television exposure at Time 2 was linked to poorer performance on both behavioral tasks. Higher screen time at Time 2 predicted shorter delay of gratification in the Prohibition Task, after controlling for age, earlier screen time, and the time interval between assessments. Parental ratings of inhibitory control were not associated with screen media use. These findings point to a potential association between greater screen exposure, namely background television and overall duration, and lower inhibitory control skills during a sensitive period, independent of parental perception.

Sharing emotions is a fundamental aspect of human interactions. Shared pleasure refers to moments where caregiver and infant engage in mutual smiling while making eye contact. This study examined shared pleasure in early mother-infant interactions as a predictor of infant attachment security. Associations between shared pleasure and maternal depressive symptoms were also investigated. The sample included 67 mother-infant dyads, of whom 22 mothers were diagnosed with postpartum depression. Shared pleasure was assessed through micro-coding of 3-min mother-infant interactions recorded in the laboratory at 4 months. Infant attachment security was measured using the Strange Situation Procedure at 13 months. Generalized linear models showed that the mean duration of shared pleasure moments, but not their mere presence, was associated with infant attachment security, with a medium-sized effect. Maternal depressive symptoms were not associated with shared pleasure. These findings suggest that shared pleasure may be an important early interaction dynamic to foster the development of secure attachment relationships.

At birth, newborns prefer upright faces over other stimuli, indicating that they already pay specific attention to facial internal features, with expectations about their featural configuration. The study investigated whether surgical mask wearing in maternity wards due to COVID-19 disrupts newborns' face processing. Using a visual preference paradigm, newborns saw paired images of the same face. In Condition 1, both faces were upright, one masked, one unmasked. No preference was found. In Condition 2, newborns saw an upright masked face versus the same masked face but inverted (i.e., upside down), showing a preference for the upright version. Findings suggest that masked and unmasked static faces equally attract newborns' attention and that surgical masks do not disrupt their face configuration processing. It has implications for recommendations to the general public, especially individuals in contact with newborns.