Endogenous oscillatory rhythms and interactive contingencies jointly influence infant attention during early infant-caregiver interaction.

ABSTRACT: Almost all early cognitive development takes place in social contexts. At the moment, however, we know little about the neural and micro-interactive mechanisms that support infants' attention during social interactions. Recording EEG during naturalistic caregiver-infant interactions (N=66), we compare two different accounts. Traditional, didactic perspectives emphasise the role of the caregiver in structuring the interaction, whilst active learning models focus on motivational factors, endogenous to the infant, that guide their attention. Our results show that, already by 12 months, intrinsic cognitive processes control infants' attention: fluctuations in endogenous oscillatory neural activity associated with changes in infant attentiveness. In comparison, infant attention was not forwards

SUBMITTER: Phillips EAM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12119090 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature