The role of maternal affect mirroring on social expectancies in three-month-old infants

Responsiveness in mother-infant social interactions among immigrant and nonmigrant families: Japanese, South Korean, South American, and European American

A culture learning perspective motivated the present study of the acculturation of responsiveness in mother-infant interactions. Several conceptual and analytic features of responsiveness in mother-infant social interactions were examined: Temporal contingency, mean differences in responsiveness among and within dyads, attunement of mother and infant responsiveness withing dyads, and the influence of acculturation on individual responsiveness. Methodologically, acculturation was assessed at group and individual levels in immigrant Japanese, South Korean, and South American dyads in comparison with nonmigrant dyads in their respective cultures of origin (Japan, South Korea, and South America) and their single common culture of destination (United States). In total, 408 mothers and their 5½-month-old infants were observed in the naturalistic setting of the home, and observations were coded for mothers' speech to infant, social play, and encouraging her infant to look at her, and infants' looking at mother and nondistress vocalizations. Odds ratios were then generated for mother and infant responsiveness in four types of social interactions: Mother speaks to infant and infant looks at mother (Mother Speak/Infant Attend), mother plays with infant and infant looks at mother (Mother Play/Infant Attend), mother plays with infant and infant vocalizes (Mother Play/Infant Vocalize), and mother encourages infant to look at her and infant vocalizes (Mother Encourage/Infant Vocalize). Five key findings emerged. Specifically, mother and infant responsiveness in Mother Speak/Infant Attend interactions were temporally contingent in all cultures. Mean differences in responsiveness among cultures emerged, and within dyads infants were more responsive than their mothers in Mother Speak/Infant Attend interactions. Mother and infant responsiveness in Mother Speak/Infant Attend interactions were attuned in all cultures. Responsiveness in Mother Play/Infant Vocalize interactions showed acculturation effects at the individual level. Implications of these findings for understanding the development of responsiveness in social interactions and acculturation in immigrant families are discussed.

Mother-infant co-regulation from 0 to 2 years: The role of copy behaviors. A systematic review

The purpose of this review was twofold: (1) to examine how copy behaviors (CB) have been studied in mother-infant natural interactions from 0 to 24 months, and (2) to determine to what extent they can be considered co-regulation processes between both members of the dyad. To do this, 36 studies published between 1975 and 2021 were systematically examined, classified and discussed. The analyzed evidence showed that CB in spontaneous mother-infant interactions have been examined under different perspectives, that such behaviors might be differentially classified as distinct modes of copying according to their traits and, lastly, that CB operate as social facilitators that foster the co-regulation of both affects and behaviors and direct mothers and infants, most of the times, towards a mutual sense of interpersonal matching that adds quality to their interactions.

Origins of Anhedonia in Childhood and Adolescence

Anhedonia reflects a reduced ability to engage in previously pleasurable activities and has been reported in children as young as 3 years of age. It manifests early and is a strong predictor of psychiatric disease onset and progression over the course of development and into adulthood. However, little is known about its mechanistic origins, particularly in childhood and adolescence. In this chapter, we provide a socio-cognitive model of the development of anhedonia. This model is substantiated by past literature presented in this chapter to account for how the individual trajectories of emotion knowledge, autobiographical memory, and self-concept representations contribute to the onset, persistence, and progression of anhedonia from early childhood through adolescence.

Maternal Depression and Mother-Child Oxytocin Synchrony in Youth with Anxiety Disorders

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) plays a central role in the regulation of affiliative bonds and anxiety. However, the degree to which its levels are synchronized between interaction partners has not yet been assessed. Physiological synchrony assessed using other peripheral measures (e.g., heart rate, etc.) has been tied to positive outcomes for the individual and the dyad. The present study examined OT synchrony in the context of child anxiety and maternal depression by examining mother-child dyads. Mothers and their children with anxiety disorders participated in a behavioral interaction task. Changes in OT levels and mother-child OT synchrony before and after the interaction, as well as their moderation by maternal depression, were assessed. Ninety-eight youth with anxiety disorders (ages 10 to 17) and their mothers underwent psychiatric evaluation, and mothers rated their own depressive symptoms and their children's behavior problems. Salivary OT was assayed from mother and child before and after the task. Behavioral coding showed that interactions were characterized by high behavioral synchrony between mothers and their children, and both individuals displayed higher levels of positive vs. negative affect during the interactions. Mothers and their children also showed decreases in OT levels after the interaction. As hypothesized, OT synchrony increased following the task, but only dyads in which mothers showed high levels of depressive symptoms showed this increase. As hypothesized, lower levels of OT-synchrony were associated with higher levels of child internalizing symptoms. The findings suggest that positive interactions may be beneficial for youth with anxiety disorders with mothers with depression.

Mother-Infant Skin-to-Skin Contact: Short- and Long-Term Effects for Mothers and Their Children Born Full-Term

This brief report reviews findings from a longitudinal study of skin-to-skin contact (SSC) with mothers and full-term infants and a follow-up study of these dyads when the children were 9 years. Findings infer the positive influence of SSC on mother-child interactions in infancy and into children's middle childhood. Mothers and infants in SSC and control groups were seen when infants were 1 week, 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months. SSC group mothers reported fewer depressive symptoms in infants' early weeks and had a greater reduction in salivary cortisol, a physiological stress indicator, in infants' first month (Bigelow et al., 2012). SSC group mothers who initially chose to breastfeed continued to breastfeed their infants throughout the 3 months, whereas breastfeeding mothers in the control group declined over the visits (Bigelow et al., 2014). When engaged in the Still Face Task with their mothers, SSC group infants showed the still face effect with their affect at 1 month, a month before the control group infants did so (Bigelow and Power, 2012). At 3 months, SSC group infants were social bidding to their mothers during the still face phase. When the children were 9 years, the mother-child dyads engaged in conversations about the children's remembered emotional events (Bigelow et al., 2018). Mother-child dyads who had been in the SSC group showed more engagement and reciprocity in the conversations than mother-child dyads who had been in the control group. Oxytocin, which is induced by SSC, is hypothesized to be an underlying factor that helped the mother-infant relationship have a positive trajectory with long-term benefits.

The effect of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact on Ghanaian infants' response to the Still Face Task: Comparison between Ghanaian and Canadian mother-infant dyads

The effect of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact on Ghanaian infants' developing social expectations for maternal behavior was investigated. Infants with high and low mother-infant skin-to-skin contact experience in the infants' first month engaged with their mothers in a Still Face Task at 6 weeks of age. Infants with high skin-to-skin contact experience, but not those with low skin-to-skin contact experience, demonstrated the still face effect with their smiles. Infants with both high and low skin-to-skin contact experience demonstrated the still face effect with their visual attention. The behaviors of the Ghanaian infants and their mothers during the task were compared to archival evidence of Canadian mother-infant dyads' behaviors in skin-to-skin and control groups who engaged in the Still Face Task at the infant ages of 1 and 2 months. Similarities and differences between the behaviors of the mother-infant dyads in the two cultures were assessed.

Mother-child adrenocortical synchrony: Roles of maternal overcontrol and child developmental phase

An increasing amount of empirical attention is focused on adrenocortical synchrony as an index of biobehavioral co-regulation between parent and child in the context of early child development. Working with an ethnically diverse community sample of children (N = 99, 50.5% male, ages 9-12), we collected saliva samples from mother-child dyads prior to and after a laboratory-based performance challenge task, and tested whether maternal overcontrol and child age moderated dyadic synchrony in cortisol. Results revealed that cortisol levels between mothers and children were significantly positively correlated at pretask for dyads with mean age and older children only, at 25-min post-task for all dyads, and at 45-min post-task for all dyads. Higher overcontrol/older child dyads exhibited a unique pattern of cortisol synchrony wherein at pretask, mother-child levels had the strongest positive correlation, whereas at 25 and 45 min, mother-child cortisol levels were significantly inversely correlated. These findings contribute to theory and research on parent-child relationships by examining parenting behavior, developmental stage, and adrenocortical synchrony in tandem.

The Effects of Maternal Mirroring on the Development of Infant Social Expressiveness: The Case of Infant Cleft Lip

Parent-infant social interactions start early in development, with infants showing active communicative expressions by just two months. A key question is how this social capacity develops. Maternal mirroring of infant expressions is considered an important, intuitive, parenting response, but evidence is sparse in the first two months concerning the conditions under which mirroring occurs and its developmental sequelae, including in clinical samples where the infant's social expressiveness may be affected. We investigated these questions by comparing the development of mother-infant interactions between a sample where the infant had cleft lip and a normal, unaffected, comparison sample. We videotaped dyads in their homes five times from one to ten weeks and used a microanalytic coding scheme for maternal and infant behaviours, including infant social expressions, and maternal mirroring and marking responses. We also recorded maternal gaze to the infant, using eye-tracking glasses. Although infants with cleft lip did show communicative behaviours, the rate of their development was slower than in comparison infants. This group difference was mediated by a lower rate of mirroring of infant expressions by mothers of infants with cleft lip; this effect was, in turn, partly accounted for by reduced gaze to the infant's mouth, although the clarity of infant social expressions (indexed by cleft severity) and maternal self-blame regarding the cleft were also influential. Results indicate the robustness of parent-infant interactions but also their sensitivity to specific variations in interactants' appearance and behaviour. Parental mirroring appears critical in infant social development, likely supported by the mirror neuron system and underlying clinical and, possibly, cultural differences in infant behaviour. These findings suggest new avenues for clinical intervention.

Interaction between the Opioid Receptor OPRM1 Gene and Mother-Child Language Style Matching Prospectively Predicts Children's Separation Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

Recent research suggests that lower mother-child language style matching (LSM) is associated with greater physiological reactivity and insecure attachment in school-aged children, but to date no studies have explored this measure of parent-child behavioral matching for its association with children's anxiety symptoms, a well-known correlate of attachment insecurity and heightened physiological reactivity. There is also considerable evidence of genetic risk for anxiety, including possession of the OPRM1 minor allele, 118G. In the current study (N = 44), we expand upon what is known about children's genetic and environmental risk for anxiety by examining the unique and interactive effects of mother-child LSM and the OPRM1 polymorphism A118G on school-aged children's separation anxiety disorder (SAD) symptoms. SAD symptoms were measured both concurrently with LSM and OPRM1 genotype and two years later through self-report. No significant associations emerged between LSM or OPRM1 and concurrent Time 1 SAD symptoms. However, lower LSM and 118G minor allele possession were both associated with greater SAD symptoms at Time 2; further, the interaction between LSM and OPRM1 genotype significantly predicted SAD symptoms beyond the main effects of the two variables. Possession of the minor allele was only associated with greater SAD symptoms among children in low LSM dyads, whereas children with the minor allele in high LSM dyads showed non-significantly lower SAD symptoms. These findings and a proportion affected analysis provide support for a differential susceptibility model of gene by environment interactions for the OPRM1 gene. We discuss the implications for predicting children's separation anxiety across development.

When dyadic interaction is the context: Mimicry behaviors on the origin of imitation

Keven & Akins (K&A) redefine some of the neonatal imitation (NI) behaviors as developmental stereotypes. From a neuroconstructivist framework, those early gestures are also far from being considered as imitative behaviors. The cognitive substrate of imitation requires an interactive context to develop. Prior to intentional imitation, the dyad shows mimicry behaviors, which are automatic, but do not fade through development.

Early maternal mirroring predicts infant motor system activation during facial expression observation

Processing facial expressions is an essential component of social interaction, especially for preverbal infants. In human adults and monkeys, this process involves the motor system, with a neural matching mechanism believed to couple self- and other-generated facial gestures. Here, we used electroencephalography to demonstrate recruitment of the human motor system during observation and execution of facial expressions in nine-month-old infants, implicating this system in facial expression processing from a very young age. Notably, examination of early video-recorded mother-infant interactions supported the common, but as yet untested, hypothesis that maternal mirroring of infant facial gestures is central to the development of a neural matching mechanism for these gestures. Specifically, the extent to which mothers mirrored infant facial expressions at two months postpartum predicted infant motor system activity during observation of the same expressions at nine months. This suggests that maternal mirroring strengthens mappings between visual and motor representations of facial gestures, which increases infant neural sensitivity to particularly relevant cues in the early social environment.

The functional architecture of mother-infant communication, and the development of infant social expressiveness in the first two months

By two-three months, infants show active social expressions during face-to-face interactions. These interactions are important, as they provide the foundation for later emotional regulation and cognition, but little is known about how infant social expressiveness develops. We considered two different accounts. One emphasizes the contingency of parental responsiveness, regardless of its form; the other, the functional architecture account, emphasizes the preparedness of both infants and parents to respond in specific ways to particular forms of behaviour in their partner. We videotaped mother-infant interactions from one to nine weeks, and analysed them with a micro-analytic coding scheme. Infant social expressiveness increased through the nine-week period, particularly after 3 weeks. This development was unrelated to the extent of maternal contingent responsiveness, even to infant social expressions. By contrast, specific forms of response that mothers used preferentially for infant social expressions-mirroring, marking with a smile- predicted the increase in these infant behaviours over time. These results support a functional architecture account of the perceptual and behavioural predispositions of infants and parents that allow young infants to capitalize on relatively limited exposure to specific parental behaviours, in order to develop important social capacities.

Mothers who are securely attached in pregnancy show more attuned infant mirroring 7 months postpartum

This study contrasted two forms of mother-infant mirroring: the mother's imitation of the infant's facial, gestural, or vocal behavior (i.e., "direct mirroring") and the mother's ostensive verbalization of the infant's internal state, marked as distinct from the infant's own experience (i.e., "intention mirroring"). Fifty mothers completed the Adult Attachment Interview (Dynamic Maturational Model) during the third trimester of pregnancy. Mothers returned with their infants 7 months postpartum and completed a modified still-face procedure. While direct mirroring did not distinguish between secure and insecure/dismissing mothers, secure mothers were observed to engage in intention mirroring more than twice as frequently as did insecure/dismissing mothers. Infants of the two mother groups also demonstrated differences, with infants of secure mothers directing their attention toward their mothers at a higher frequency than did infants of insecure/dismissing mothers. The findings underscore marked and ostensive verbalization as a distinguishing feature of secure mothers' well-attuned, affect-mirroring communication with their infants.

The Emergence of Social Smiling

The study addresses the emergence of the social smile in two different sociocultural contexts during the first 12 postnatal weeks. We examined different eliciting mechanisms like mutual gazing, maternal smile during mutual gazing, and reciprocal maternal and infant imitation of smiling. In co-constructivist theories of emotional development, all of them are considered social mechanisms that foster the emergence of social smile in early infancy around the 2-month shift. During the 6th postnatal week, we assumed that mutual gazing and the accompanying maternal smiles are the primary mechanisms that correspond with first infants’ social smile. From the 2-month shift onward, thus during the 8th, 10th, and 12th postnatal weeks, we assumed maternal imitation of infant smile moderates the positive relationship between infant imitation of maternal smile and the duration of infant social smile. We compared face-to-face interactions between 20 mother–child dyads from an independent sociocultural context (urban middle-class families from Münster, Germany) and 24 mother–child dyads from an interdependent sociocultural context (rural Nso families, Cameroon) when the infants were 6, 8, 10, and 12 weeks old. The first hypothesis could be corroborated for both cultural contexts, the second hypothesis only partly for the independent cultural contexts and staggered for the interdependent context. The consequences of culture-specific developmental pathways of social smile are discussed.

Toward a second-person neuroscience

In spite of the remarkable progress made in the burgeoning field of social neuroscience, the neural mechanisms that underlie social encounters are only beginning to be studied and could – paradoxically – be seen as representing the “dark matter” of social neuroscience. Recent conceptual and empirical developments consistently indicate the need for investigations that allow the study of real-time social encounters in a truly interactive manner. This suggestion is based on the premise that social cognition is fundamentally different when we are in interaction with others rather than merely observing them. In this article, we outline the theoretical conception of a second-person approach to other minds and review evidence from neuroimaging, psychophysiological studies, and related fields to argue for the development of a second-person neuroscience, which will help neuroscience to really “go social”; this may also be relevant for our understanding of psychiatric disorders construed as disorders of social cognition.

Subclinical levels of maternal depression and infant sensitivity to social contingency

The aim of the study was to investigate how young infants respond to contingent and non-contingent interaction in relation to maternal level of depressive symptoms in a non-clinical sample of mothers and infants. Two groups of three-month-olds interacted with their mother who was assessed as either non-depressed or sub-clinically depressed, based on self-reported scores on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). The infants were presented with a continuous image and voice of their mother in a closed circuit computer system, using the double video procedure. The experiment comprised five sequences, alternating between contingent (Live) and non-contingent (Replay) maternal behaviur in a fixed Live1-Replay1-Live2-Replay2-Live3 sequence. The infants of the sub-clinically depressed mothers showed a high gaze focus at their mother independently of the quality of interaction, while the infants of the non-depressed mothers showed a preference for looking at the mother only when the interaction with their mother was contingent. Further, the infants of the sub-clinically depressed mothers showed no differentiation in affective expression between contingent and non-contingent interactions, while the infants of the non-depressed mothers expressed more positive affect than negative affect only when the interaction with their mother was contingent. Finally, there was a significant relation between the infant's preference for looking at the mother and the infant's amount of positive affect, but this was only found for the infants of the non-depressed. These results indicate that young infants' sensitivity to social contingency is related to maternal level of depression, even in a non-clinical sample. This expands the implications of earlier findings on the impact of maternal depression on infant sensitivity to social contingency, demonstrating that even sub-clinical levels of maternal depression may effect early interaction and child development.

A cross-cultural comparison of the development of the social smile: a longitudinal study of maternal and infant imitation in 6- and 12-week-old infants

Social smiling is universally regarded as being an infant's first facial expression of pleasure. Underlying co-constructivist emotion theories are the assumptions that the emergence of social smiling is bound to experiences of face-to-face interactions with caregivers and the impact of two developmental mechanisms--maternal and infant imitation. We analyzed mother-infant interactions from two different socio-cultural contexts and hypothesized that cross-cultural differences in face-to-face interactions determine the occurrence of both of these mechanisms and of the frequency of social smiling by 12-week-old infants. Twenty mother-infant dyads from a socio-cultural community with many face-to-face interactions (German families, Münster) were compared with 24 mother-infant dyads from a socio-cultural community with few such interactions (rural Nso families, Cameroon) when the infants were aged 6 and 12 weeks. When infants were 6 weeks old, mothers and their infants from both cultural communities smiled at each other for similar (albeit very short) amounts of time and used imitated each other's smiling similarly rarely. In contrast, when infants were 12 weeks old, mothers and their infants from Münster smiled at and imitated each other more often than did Nso mothers and their infants.

The effect of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact on infants' response to the Still Face Task from newborn to three months of age

The effect of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact on infants' developing social expectations for maternal behavior was investigated longitudinally over infants' first 3 months. Infants with and without skin-to-skin contact engaged with their mothers in the Still Face Task at ages 1 week, 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months. Infants with skin-to-skin contact began responding to changes in their mothers' behavior with their affect at 1 month; infants without skin-to-skin contact did so at 2 months. At 3 months, infants with skin-to-skin contact increased their non-distress vocalizations during the still face phase, suggesting social bidding to their mothers. Skin-to-skin contact accelerated infants' social expectations for their mothers' behavior and enhanced infants' awareness of themselves as active agents in social interactions.

After praise and encouragement: emotional support strategies used by birth doulas in the USA and Canada

OBJECTIVE

to describe in detail the emotional support techniques employed by birth doulas during labour.

DESIGN

grounded theory methodology was utilised in collecting and analysing interviews given by doulas and mothers who had doula care. By using both informants, a clearer picture of what constitutes emotional support by doulas emerged.

PARTICIPANTS

10 mothers from three different states in the Midwestern USA and 30 doulas from 10 different states and two Canadian provinces were interviewed. Two doulas worked in hospital-based programmes whereas the others had independent practices. Doulas usually attended births in hospitals where medical attendants spent little focused time with the mother.

FINDINGS

nine different strategies were distinguished. Four strategies (reassurance, encouragement, praise, explaining) were similar to those attributed to nurses in published research. Five were original and described as only being used by doulas (mirroring, acceptance, reinforcing, reframing, debriefing).

CONCLUSIONS

emotional support by professional birth doulas is more complex and sophisticated than previously surmised. Mothers experienced these strategies as extremely meaningful and significant with their ability to cope and influencing the course of their labour.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

the doula's role in providing emotional support is distinct from the obstetric nurse and midwife. Professional doulas utilise intricate and complex emotional support skills when providing continuous support for women in labour. Application of these skills may provide an explanation for the positive 'doula effect' on obstetric and neonatal outcomes in certain settings.

Desenvolvimento do olhar e do contato ocular em lactentes de zero a quatro meses de idade

OBJETIVOS: investigar o desenvolvimento do contato ocular e do comportamento visual de bebês entre zero e quatro meses. MÉTODOS: dezessete bebês típicos foram filmados mensalmente por 30 minutos, sendo transcritas 11 categorias de observação do olhar, quantificadas e tratadas estatisticamente através dos testes de Friedman (α = 0,050) e dos Postos Sinalizados de Wilcoxon (α de Bonferroni = 0,010). RESULTADOS: houve diferenças estatisticamente significantes nas frequências das categorias: "olhar para os olhos da mãe" (p<0,001), "olhar para o rosto da mãe" (p<0,001), "olhar para objeto" (p<0,001), "olhar para a pesquisadora" (p<0,001), "olhar para o ambiente de forma ativa" (p<0,001), "olhar para o ambiente de forma passiva" (p<0,001), "olhar para o próprio corpo" (p=0,001) e "olhos fechados" (p=0,005). Detectou-se o contato ocular na terceira semana de vida (64,7%) e comprovou-se sua evolução nos cinco primeiros meses (p=0,010 em 50% dos intervalos entre coletas). CONCLUSÕES: o contato ocular pode ser detectado desde o período neonatal e se desenvolve nos primeiros meses de vida. A frequência do contato ocular do bebê com sua mãe aumenta longitudinal-mente nos primeiros quatro meses. Existem outros focos de olhar do bebê fundamentais no início do desenvolvimento extrauterino além dos olhos de sua mãe.

The ontogenesis of smiling and its association with mothers' affective behaviors: A longitudinal study

Two babies were observed from their third week to their sixth month of life. Our goals in the study were: to investigate developmental changes in smiling patterns; to analyze the smiling patterns observed in the presence of mother's affective behaviors, and to verify whether the babies can answer contingently, with smiles, to mothers' affective behaviors. The babies and their mothers were videotaped at home. It was verified a positive linear trajectory tendency for the babies' smiles. The babies revealed a particular tendency to display one or two kinds of smiles. Babies answered contingently with smiles to their mothers' affective behaviors. Correlations between the most frequent types of babies' smiles and his/her mothers' smiles were verified (r = .77, p < .0017 - baby1, and r = .62, p < .0017 - baby2). Different types of smiles were exhibited by the babies as contingent answers to mothers' behaviors. The results show an association between babies' smiles and their mothers' affective behaviors.

Perturbation of Japanese mother-infant habitual interactions in the double video paradigm and relationship to maternal playfulness

Double video paradigm (DVP) studies have found contradictory evidence regarding the young infants' ability to discriminate their mother's 'replay' image from 'live'. This study examined the hypothesis that 4-month-old infants whose mothers showed high-levels-of-playful-behavior are more likely to discriminate social contingency in the DVP. We also examined the relationships between the infants' DVP behaviors and mothers' free-play behaviors at home with their 3-month-old infants. The results supported our hypothesis. Further, when the mothers' behaviors were reduced to playful companion (PC) and sensitive support (SS) by a principal component analysis, the level of PC was closely related to the infants' detection of social contingency, but SS was not. The different functions of mothers' 'playfulness' and 'sensitivity' in communication with their infants are discussed.

Communication in early infancy: An arena of intersubjective learning

The present essay summarizes experimental, video-microanalytic and clinical aspects of the Papouseks' approach to early preverbal communication. The first section summarizes some of their video-microanalytic research on intuitive parenting and preverbal parent-infant communication. It describes the naturalistic preverbal learning context where infants learn and integrate experiences about themselves, the parent, their interrelatedness, and interactions with objects and events in the environment. The second section recapitulates research involving various kinds of experimental manipulations of the parents' communicative behavior and its effects on infant responses. The final section draws a bow to individual differences and what can be learned from the application of the still-face paradigm in clinical assessments of dysfunctional parent-infant communication.

Facing the perfect contingency: interactions with the self at 2 and 3 months

We used a double video Live-Replay-Live procedure to explore self-self interactions in fourteen 9-week-old infants, repeated at 13-weeks with 10 of these infants. Using multiple measures of behavioural response we found that (1) in all cases where age effects held, duration of response was greater at 9- than at 13-weeks, (2) infants' responses differed according to whether or not self-images were Live or Replay, and (3) age and condition interacted to influence infants' responses. At 9 (but not 13) weeks, the two Live conditions correlated with each other but not with the Replay condition on some measures, indicating that infants apprehended the visual-proprioceptive contingency provided by their actions. Also at 9-weeks only, all infants showed reversals in visual attention with evidence for a bi-modal pattern: 8 preferring the Live conditions and 6 the Replay condition. An explanation based on familiarity and increasing disinterest with specific contexts is suggested.

The parent-infant dyad and the construction of the subjective self

Developmental psychology and psychopathology has in the past been more concerned with the quality of self-representation than with the development of the subjective agency which underpins our experience of feeling, thought and action, a key function of mentalisation. This review begins by contrasting a Cartesian view of pre-wired introspective subjectivity with a constructionist model based on the assumption of an innate contingency detector which orients the infant towards aspects of the social world that react congruently and in a specifically cued informative manner that expresses and facilitates the assimilation of cultural knowledge. Research on the neural mechanisms associated with mentalisation and social influences on its development are reviewed. It is suggested that the infant focuses on the attachment figure as a source of reliable information about the world. The construction of the sense of a subjective self is then an aspect of acquiring knowledge about the world through the caregiver's pedagogical communicative displays which in this context focuses on the child's thoughts and feelings. We argue that a number of possible mechanisms, including complementary activation of attachment and mentalisation, the disruptive effect of maltreatment on parent-child communication, the biobehavioural overlap of cues for learning and cues for attachment, may have a role in ensuring that the quality of relationship with the caregiver influences the development of the child's experience of thoughts and feelings.

The role of maternal affect attunement in dyadic and triadic communication

The influence of maternal affect attunement on the relationship between gaze monitoring during dyadic communication at 3 months and coordinated attention during triadic communication at 5, 7 and 10 months was examined in a longitudinal study. Although most infants engaged in gaze monitoring at 3 months and in coordinated attention at 5, 7 and 10 months, a regression analysis revealed that gaze monitoring at 3 months significantly predicted coordinated attention at 10 months only when maternal affect attunement was high. These findings are discussed in terms of theories that emphasize the role of social interaction in the development of meaningful communication and continuity in mental state awareness during the first year of life.

Maternal soothing and infant stress responses: Soothing, crying and adrenocortical activity during inoculation

The relation between maternal soothing and infant stress response during inoculation was examined in a sample of 37 mothers and their 3-month-old infants. The mothers' soothing and the infants' cry vocalizations and the mothers' and the infants' salivary cortisol level pre- and post-injection were analysed. There was a positive relation between infants' cry vocalization post-injection and maternal soothing pre- and post-injection. The sample was divided in two sub-groups depending on whether the mothers evidenced most soothing of the infants in the period before (Preparatory group; n=20) or after (Contingent group; n=17) the syringe injection. In the Preparatory group, the duration of infant cry vocalizations was related to amount of maternal soothing before and after the injection, while cry vocalizations in the Contingent group was related to amount of maternal soothing after the injection. The Contingent infants responded to the injection with a significant increase in cortisol, while there was no increase in the Preparatory infants. The Preparatory infants evidenced significantly longer duration of looking at the target stimuli in a visual marking task, suggesting greater difficulties in disengaging attention. These findings indicate that 3-month-olds' stress responses and their mothers' situational behaviour are mutually regulated.

Contingency, imitation, and affect sharing: Foundations of infants' social awareness

Predictions about the role of contingency, imitation, and affect sharing in the development of social awareness were tested in infants during natural, imitative, and yoked conditions with their mothers at 5 and 13 weeks of age. Results showed that at both ages, infants of highly attuned mothers gazed, smiled, and vocalized positively more during the natural than during the imitative and yoked conditions, whereas they increased negative vocalizations during the yoked conditions. In contrast, infants of less attuned mothers did not differentiate between the conditions, except at 13 weeks when these infants increased their gazes during the imitative condition. Whereas contingency and imitation draw infant attention to conspecifics, affective communication appears to lay the foundation for infants' social awareness.