“Tuning in” to your child during play and learning : the science of interpersonal neural synchrony

Abstract

Mothers are their baby's first, natural teachers. Even from birth, a mother will naturally begin to communicate with her newborn using social cues such as gaze, smiling and touch. These social cues tell the infant that her mother intends to communicate, and is “tuned in” and fully engaged. Infants are socially-prepared to detect and respond to such social cues, and neonates will look longer at a picture of an adult who is looking directly at them rather than one who averts their gaze. Direct gaze also creates a state of shared attention (or focus) between mother and infant. When in this neural state, infants’ own attention to new information or objects is prolonged, and this enhances learning. In this talk, I will present findings from our recent brain imaging research, which is investigating the neural mechanisms that help mothers and babies to share attention with and learn from each other, particularly in the context of play. One key mechanism of interest is brain-to-brain synchronisation – the temporal coupling or synchronisation of patterns of neural activity between adult and infant.