It's common knowledge that the first years of life are essential for a human being. Now, Portuguese research is taking this understanding a step further.
A research project led by the University of Coimbra (UC) is studying the functioning of babies' brains in order to better understand the impact of interaction with adults on social and language development.
The analysis, called SocialBabyBrain, will be carried out through moments in which they share the focus of attention with adults, identifying the brain areas that are most activated and are subsequently related to social and language development.
The team, explains the UC in a statement sent to ZAP, wants to help identify neural markers that could, in the future, help identify children who are at greater risk of difficulties in social interaction and communication.
"Shared attention - that is, the way in which babies coordinate their attention with an adult in relation to an object - is an important milestone in the way they understand the social world around them," says researcher Vera Mateus.
Thus, "knowing the brain mechanisms underlying the development of this social interaction skill can help to identify early behavioral and neural patterns that constitute a greater risk for difficulties in social interaction and communication with others," explains the coordinator of the SocialBabyBrain project.
The babies will experience various activities. Several games, in fact: "They'll play some games with a researcher from the team, using some toys".
"In one of the activities, the baby wears an elastic cap with sensors - a non-invasive and totally safe technique - which allows us to learn how their brain works. This technique, called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), records the activation of the brain during moments of play, allowing us to identify which areas are most active during moments of interaction," says Vera.
There will also be a moment of play between mother and baby and some questionnaires to get to know the family and the baby.
The research attempts to go beyond previous studies, which only focus on one moment of assessment.
By collecting behavioral and neuroimaging data, as well as investigating changes over time in babies' brains, this project "will make it possible to understand how the behavioral manifestations of shared attention relate to the maturation of specific brain areas, and explain individual differences in sociocommunicative skills that emerge later, such as language and social competence".
The Portuguese study will also try to "help inform early intervention programs, aimed at parents and health and education professionals who deal with children in this age group, with the aim of promoting more positive developmental trajectories".
The SocialBabyBrain project - Neural correlates of shared attention: a fundamental basis for the subsequent development of social competence starts this week and will run until 2026. It includes babies up to 9 months of age.
