Abstract
Almost all attention and learning—in particular, most early learning—take place in social settings. But little is known of how our brains support dynamic social interactions. We recorded dual electroencephalography (EEG) from 12-month-old infants and parents during solo play and joint play. During solo play, fluctuations in infants’ theta power significantly forward-predicted their subsequent attentional behaviours. However, this forward-predictiveness was lower during joint play than solo play, suggesting that infants’ endogenous neural control over attention is greater during solo play. Overall, however, infants were more attentive to the objects during joint play. To understand why, we examined how adult brain activity related to infant attention. We found that parents’ theta power closely tracked and responded to changes in their infants’ attention. Further, instances in which parents showed greater neural responsivity were associated with longer sustained attention by infants. Our results offer new insights into how one partner influences another during social interaction.
Highlights
Attention and learning are supported by endogenous oscillatory activity in the brain [1,2,3,4]
It is well established that attention and learning are supported by the endogenous oscillatory neural activity of the person attending
We found that when infants were engaged in solo play, continuous fluctuations in theta power forward-predicted visual attention in infants (Fig 2)
Summary
Attention and learning are supported by endogenous oscillatory activity in the brain [1,2,3,4]. Convergent research has suggested that theta band oscillations, which are marked during early development [10], are associated with attentional and encoding processes. Considerable previous research has investigated how brain oscillations relate to an individual’s behaviour, only a smaller body of research has investigated the neural mechanisms through which interpersonal and social factors influence behaviour [14,15,16]. This is despite the fact that our brains have evolved for social living [17], and most of our lives— early life—are spent in social settings [18]. Understanding how social influences on attention and learning are substantiated across the brains of people engaging in social interaction, during the crucial early stages of attention and learning, is an important goal for research [19, 20]
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