Principal Investigator
Patricia Kuhl – University of Washington, Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences
Project Description
The research team used infant magnetoencephalography (MEG) technology to measure five-month-old infants’ neural responses during live verbal face-to-face interactions with adults (treatment). The team compared these infants’ responses to a control group of infants in which the adult turned away from the infant to speak to another person. Researchers collected data across multiple time points and tested whether infants’ brain responses to these conditions at five months of age predicted their language growth at five future time points.
Research Questions
- Does individual variation in brain activation in areas of the brain related to attention and sensorimotor processing in response to the social ensemble predict individual variation in language skills more than 2 years later?
Key Findings
Results revealed that infants’ brain areas involved in attention (right hemisphere inferior frontal, right hemisphere superior temporal, and right hemisphere inferior parietal) showed significantly higher theta activity in the social versus nonsocial condition. In addition, infants’ neural activity in response to the face-to-face interaction in attentional and sensorimotor regions significantly predicted future language development into the third year of life, more than two years after the initial measurements. Findings suggest that social interactions are critical to successful early language acquisition. Collectively, the study offers new insights into the neurobiological components that link infants’ language learning to their early brain functioning during social interaction.
Study Citation
Bosseler, A. N., Meltzoff, A. N., Bierer, S., Huber, E., Mizrahi, J. C., Larson, E., … & Kuhl, P. K. (2024). Infants’ brain responses to social interaction predict future language growth. Current Biology, 34(8), 1731-1738.
The Key Findings above were reproduced from the published report and do not necessarily reflect interpretation of Overdeck Family Foundation staff.
