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  • FP_IBAD_(accepted17_July_2021)

    Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Infant Behavior and Development. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Infant Behavior and Development, 64, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101612

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Infants Oscillatory Frequencies change during Free-Play for Social vs Non-social Interactions

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
Article number101612
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>31/08/2021
<mark>Journal</mark>Infant Behavior and Development
Volume64
Number of pages14
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date28/07/21
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

The ability to investigate neural activity during infancy whilst partaking in social (and non-social) engagement with a caregiver in a naturalistic interaction is a key issue for advancing the developmental sciences. Understanding the neural basis of social interactions will allow us to explore how exposure to atypical parent-infant interactions, which serve as a model for socio-emotional development during infancy, can alter neural development. The current research aimed to observe the oscillatory activity of 6-month-old infants during spontaneous free-play interactions with their mother. A 5-minute unconstrained free-play session was recorded between infant-mother dyads with EEG recordings acquired from the 6-month-old infants (n=64). During the recording, social interactions and non-social behaviours were observed, with EEG assessed with these epochs.

Results showed broad increases in oscillatory activity both when an infant played independently or interacted with their mother. As hypothesised, as frequency bands approached alpha and theta, oscillatory power statistically increased. In the present 6-month-old cohort, no hemispheric differences were observed. Instead, differences appeared between electrode regions: frontal and parietal regions bihemispherically displayed similar estimates, which were larger than those observed centrally, whilst temporal estimates were larger and discrete from all other regions. The interactions observed between the behavioural events and frequency bands demonstrated a significant reduction in power comparative to the power observed in the gamma band during the baseline event. The interactions between the frequency bands and electrode locations uncover an increase in power comparative to that seen in the gamma band in the left-central region.

The present research sought to explore the obstacle of artificial play paradigms for neuroscience research, whereby researchers question how much these paradigms relate to reality outside the lab. The present work highlights the strengths and limitations of taking an unconstrained free-play approach.

Bibliographic note

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Infant Behavior and Development. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Infant Behavior and Development, 64, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101612