Social and emotional contexts predict the development of gaze following in early infancy.

Kim Astor,Mari Fransson,Ben Kenward,Gustaf Gredebäck,Linda Forssman,Anne Tharner,Juliëtte Cassé,Marcus Lindskog,Alkistis Skalkidou

doi:10.1098/rsos.201178

Kim Astor, Mari Fransson + Show 7 more

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https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201178

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Abstract

The development of gaze following begins in early infancy and its developmental foundation has been under heavy debate. Using a longitudinal design (N = 118), we demonstrate that attachment quality predicts individual differences in the onset of gaze following, at six months of age, and that maternal postpartum depression predicts later gaze following, at 10 months. In addition, we report longitudinal stability in gaze following from 6 to 10 months. A full path model (using attachment, maternal depression and gaze following at six months) accounted for 21% of variance in gaze following at 10 months. These results suggest an experience-dependent development of gaze following, driven by the infant's own motivation to interact and engage with others (the social-first perspective).

Highlights

Gaze following, the ability to synchronize visual attention with others based on their gaze direction [1,2], is an ability with a broad phylogenetic base, present in a wide range of species such as non-human primates [3] and canines [4]
The current study aims to (i) describe the development of gaze following in relation to the infant’s own social and emotional environment, in this case, variation in maternal postpartum depression symptoms and infant–mother attachment quality, and in extension (ii) assess whether the onset and future development of gaze following is best described as an experience-expectant or an experience-dependent process
Using Spearman correlation, we found that attachment classification (B vs ACD) was significantly correlated with gaze following at six

Summary

Introduction

The ability to synchronize visual attention with others based on their gaze direction [1,2], is an ability with a broad phylogenetic base, present in a wide range of species such as non-human primates [3] and canines [4]. In humans, this ability has been associated with social learning in infancy (e.g. language [5,6,7,8]) and emotional regulation in toddlers [9]. With respect to individual differences, Morales et al [7] reported partial stability in gaze following from 8 to 18 months, whereas Gredebäck et al [13] demonstrated clear effects on a group level but found no individual stability in gaze following from two to eight months

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