Proactive or reactive? Neural oscillatory insight into the leader–follower dynamics of early infant–caregiver interaction | PNAS thumbnail
Proactive or reactive? Neural oscillatory insight into the leader–follower dynamics of early infant–caregiver interaction | PNAS
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Our results suggest they do not: infants showed no evidence of social signaling before leading their partner’s attention, and their endogenous oscillatory activity did not increase Infants were, however, sensitive to their gaze being followed: when caregivers joined their attention, infants showed n
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Summary

- 👶🔍 Infants do not show proactive social signaling before leading their caregiver's attention during interactions.
- 🧠⚡ Their neural oscillatory activity indicates sensitivity to caregivers following their gaze, linked to anticipatory processing.
- 🤝🔄 The study suggests infants do not actively control attention allocation but respond to adult-led attention.
- 📉🍼 At 10 to 12 months, infants are not predominantly proactive in joint attention episodes with caregivers.
- 🌱💬 However, their sensitivity to contingent responses may lay the groundwork for future intentional communication.

Top Highlights

  • Our results suggest they do not: infants showed no evidence of social signaling before leading their partner’s attention, and their endogenous oscillatory activity did not increase
  • Infants were, however, sensitive to their gaze being followed: when caregivers joined their attention, infants showed neural activity associated with anticipatory processing
  • Taken together, the combination of our neural and behavioral results is inconsistent with the idea that infants routinely exert active and intentional control over the allocation of their attention where they lead their partner’s attention and could suggest that similar processes drive infant attention when leading a mutual attention episode and jo...
  • That said, while the findings of the current analysis suggest that infants do not routinely show signs of proactively leading their partner’s attention during shared interaction, it is still possible that moments of proactive engagement by the infant are infrequent but nevertheless important to the ongoing interactive exchange (50).
  • The findings reported here suggest that at 10 to 12 mo, infants are not yet predominantly proactive in creating and maintaining episodes of joint attention with their adult partner. They are, however, sensitive to whether their behavior is contingently responded to, potentially forming the basis for the emergence of intentionally mediated communica...

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