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Forest TA, McCormick SA, Davel L, Mlandu N, Zieff MR, Amso D, Donald KA, Gabard-Durnam LJ. Early Caregiver Predictability Shapes Neural Indices of Statistical Learning Later in Infancy. Dev Sci 2024:e13570. [PMID: 39352772 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13570] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2024] [Revised: 09/10/2024] [Accepted: 09/12/2024] [Indexed: 10/04/2024]
Abstract
Caregivers play an outsized role in shaping early life experiences and development, but we often lack mechanistic insight into how exactly caregiver behavior scaffolds the neurodevelopment of specific learning processes. Here, we capitalized on the fact that caregivers differ in how predictable their behavior is to ask if infants' early environmental input shapes their brains' later ability to learn about predictable information. As part of an ongoing longitudinal study in South Africa, we recorded naturalistic, dyadic interactions between 103 (46 females and 57 males) infants and their primary caregivers at 3-6 months of age, from which we calculated the predictability of caregivers' behavior, following caregiver vocalization and overall. When the same infants were 6-12-months-old they participated in an auditory statistical learning task during EEG. We found evidence of learning-related change in infants' neural responses to predictable information during the statistical learning task. The magnitude of statistical learning-related change in infants' EEG responses was associated with the predictability of their caregiver's vocalizations several months earlier, such that infants with more predictable caregiver vocalization patterns showed more evidence of statistical learning later in the first year of life. These results suggest that early experiences with caregiver predictability influence learning, providing support for the hypothesis that the neurodevelopment of core learning and memory systems is closely tied to infants' experiences during key developmental windows.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sarah A McCormick
- Center for Cognitive and Brain Health, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Lauren Davel
- Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Nwabisa Mlandu
- Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Michal R Zieff
- Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Dima Amso
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
| | - Kirsty A Donald
- Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
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2
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Jimenez CA, Meyer ML. The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex prioritizes social learning during rest. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2309232121. [PMID: 38466844 PMCID: PMC10962978 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2309232121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/12/2024] [Indexed: 03/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Sociality is a defining feature of the human experience: We rely on others to ensure survival and cooperate in complex social networks to thrive. Are there brain mechanisms that help ensure we quickly learn about our social world to optimally navigate it? We tested whether portions of the brain's default network engage "by default" to quickly prioritize social learning during the memory consolidation process. To test this possibility, participants underwent functional MRI (fMRI) while viewing scenes from the documentary film, Samsara. This film shows footage of real people and places from around the world. We normed the footage to select scenes that differed along the dimension of sociality, while matched on valence, arousal, interestingness, and familiarity. During fMRI, participants watched the "social" and "nonsocial" scenes, completed a rest scan, and a surprise recognition memory test. Participants showed superior social (vs. nonsocial) memory performance, and the social memory advantage was associated with neural pattern reinstatement during rest in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), a key node of the default network. Moreover, it was during early rest that DMPFC social pattern reinstatement was greatest and predicted subsequent social memory performance most strongly, consistent with the "prioritization" account. Results simultaneously update 1) theories of memory consolidation, which have not addressed how social information may be prioritized in the learning process, and 2) understanding of default network function, which remains to be fully characterized. More broadly, the results underscore the inherent human drive to understand our vastly social world.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Meghan L. Meyer
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY10027
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Wilbrecht L, Davidow JY. Goal-directed learning in adolescence: neurocognitive development and contextual influences. Nat Rev Neurosci 2024; 25:176-194. [PMID: 38263216 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-023-00783-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/25/2024]
Abstract
Adolescence is a time during which we transition to independence, explore new activities and begin pursuit of major life goals. Goal-directed learning, in which we learn to perform actions that enable us to obtain desired outcomes, is central to many of these processes. Currently, our understanding of goal-directed learning in adolescence is itself in a state of transition, with the scientific community grappling with inconsistent results. When we examine metrics of goal-directed learning through the second decade of life, we find that many studies agree there are steady gains in performance in the teenage years, but others report that adolescent goal-directed learning is already adult-like, and some find adolescents can outperform adults. To explain the current variability in results, sophisticated experimental designs are being applied to test learning in different contexts. There is also increasing recognition that individuals of different ages and in different states will draw on different neurocognitive systems to support goal-directed learning. Through adoption of more nuanced approaches, we can be better prepared to recognize and harness adolescent strengths and to decipher the purpose (or goals) of adolescence itself.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linda Wilbrecht
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
| | - Juliet Y Davidow
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
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Werchan DM, Thomason ME, Brito NH. OWLET: An automated, open-source method for infant gaze tracking using smartphone and webcam recordings. Behav Res Methods 2023; 55:3149-3163. [PMID: 36070130 PMCID: PMC9450825 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-022-01962-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
Groundbreaking insights into the origins of the human mind have been garnered through the study of eye movements in preverbal subjects who are unable to explain their thought processes. Developmental research has largely relied on in-lab testing with trained experimenters. This constraint provides a narrow window into infant cognition and impedes large-scale data collection in families from diverse socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural backgrounds. Here we introduce a new open-source methodology for automatically analyzing infant eye-tracking data collected on personal devices in the home. Using algorithms from computer vision, machine learning, and ecological psychology, we develop an online webcam-linked eye tracker (OWLET) that provides robust estimation of infants' point of gaze from smartphone and webcam recordings of infant assessments in the home. We validate OWLET in a large sample of 7-month-old infants (N = 127) tested remotely, using an established visual attention task. We show that this new method reliably estimates infants' point-of-gaze across a variety of contexts, including testing on both computers and mobile devices, and exhibits excellent external validity with parental-report measures of attention. Our platform fills a significant gap in current tools available for rapid online data collection and large-scale assessments of cognitive processes in infants. Remote assessment addresses the need for greater diversity and accessibility in human studies and may support the ecological validity of behavioral experiments. This constitutes a critical and timely advance in a core domain of developmental research and in psychological science more broadly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Denise M Werchan
- Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine, 227 E 30th St, 7th Fl, New York, NY, 10016, USA.
- Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA.
| | - Moriah E Thomason
- Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine, 227 E 30th St, 7th Fl, New York, NY, 10016, USA
- Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA
| | - Natalie H Brito
- Department of Applied Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
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Werchan DM, Ku S, Berry D, Blair C. Sensitive caregiving and reward responsivity: A novel mechanism linking parenting and executive functions development in early childhood. Dev Sci 2023; 26:e13293. [PMID: 35665988 PMCID: PMC9719571 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13293] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2021] [Revised: 04/04/2022] [Accepted: 05/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Sensitive caregiving is an essential aspect of positive parenting that influences executive functions development, but the mechanisms underlying this association are less clear. Using data from the Family Life Project, a large prospective longitudinal sample of 1292 families residing in rural, predominately low-income communities, the current study examined whether sensitive caregiving impacts executive functions development by shaping behavioral reward processing systems in early postnatal life. Results indicated that higher levels of sensitive caregiving during infancy were associated with heightened reward responsivity at age 4, which in turn predicted superior executive functions ability at age 5. Notably, children's reward responsivity partially mediated the relationship between sensitive caregiving in infancy and executive functions ability at school entry. These findings add to prior work on early experience and children's executive functions and highlight caregiver scaffolding of developing reward processing systems as a potential foundational mechanism for supporting adaptive behavior and self-regulation across the lifespan.
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Affiliation(s)
- Denise M Werchan
- Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine, New York City, New York, USA
| | - Seulki Ku
- Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine, New York City, New York, USA
| | - Daniel Berry
- Institute of Child Development, The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
| | - Clancy Blair
- Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine, New York City, New York, USA
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Smid CR, Kool W, Hauser TU, Steinbeis N. Computational and behavioral markers of model-based decision making in childhood. Dev Sci 2023; 26:e13295. [PMID: 35689563 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13295] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2021] [Revised: 05/12/2022] [Accepted: 05/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Human decision-making is underpinned by distinct systems that differ in flexibility and associated cognitive cost. A widely accepted dichotomy distinguishes between a cheap but rigid model-free system and a flexible but costly model-based system. Typically, humans use a hybrid of both types of decision-making depending on environmental demands. However, children's use of a model-based system during decision-making has not yet been shown. While prior developmental work has identified simple building blocks of model-based reasoning in young children (1-4 years old), there has been little evidence of this complex cognitive system influencing behavior before adolescence. Here, by using a modified task to make engagement in cognitively costly strategies more rewarding, we show that children aged 5-11-years (N = 85), including the youngest children, displayed multiple indicators of model-based decision making, and that the degree of its use increased throughout childhood. Unlike adults (N = 24), however, children did not display adaptive arbitration between model-free and model-based decision-making. Our results demonstrate that throughout childhood, children can engage in highly sophisticated and costly decision-making strategies. However, the flexible arbitration between decision-making strategies might be a critically late-developing component in human development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire R Smid
- Department of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, the United Kingdom
| | - Wouter Kool
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
| | - Tobias U Hauser
- Max Planck University College London Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, London, the United Kingdom.,Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, the United Kingdom
| | - Nikolaus Steinbeis
- Department of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, the United Kingdom
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Lee C, Lew-Williams C. Speech and social cues combine at discourse boundaries to promote word learning. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2022.101254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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