CAREER: Neonatal Imitation and Early Social Skills in Infancy

该项目将分析从出生到一岁的社会行为发展，重点是新生儿的模仿。该项目旨在加强对婴儿社会性发展的理解，并为未来的研究铺平道路，旨在确定有神经发育障碍风险的婴儿。它将扩展关于早期模仿的本质的知识，以及它是否可以用来预测后来的社会兴趣、能力和生理。此外，为了进一步推进该领域的研究，项目资源和数据将与更广泛的研究社区共享。一项旨在增加女性和代表性不足的少数民族的研究参与的指导计划将通过向年轻学生介绍科学方法来激励他们追求科学事业。最后，该项目整合了跨学科的研究和教育，将动物行为和发育科学的不同领域联系起来。采用纵向设计与行为和生理测量，该项目将探讨新生儿模仿和后来的社会发展之间的联系。新生儿模仿是一种模仿他人行为的早期能力，比如面部表情。早期的研究结果表明，通过测量新生儿的模仿能力，我们可以更好地预测他们的发展轨迹。为了提高测量灵敏度和提高可重复性，新生儿对面部手势的模仿将使用自动面部分析进行评估。眼动追踪将测量婴儿对社会和非社会刺激的视觉注意力。婴儿唾液将被收集来追踪催产素水平的发育变化，催产素是一种与社会行为相关的神经肽。婴儿将参与对他们的非语言沟通技巧的半结构化评估。研究者将测试新生儿模仿是否可以用来更好地理解早期社交能力的个体差异，并预测健康的社交发展。

The project will analyze the development of social behavior from birth through the first year of life, focusing on imitation in newborn babies. This project aims to enhance the understanding of the development of sociality in infants and pave the way for future research aimed at identifying infants at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders. It will expand knowledge about the nature of early imitation and whether it may be used to predict later social interest, abilities, and physiology. Furthermore, to further advance research in this domain, project resources and data will be shared with the broader research community. A mentoring program designed to increase the research participation of women and underrepresented minorities will inspire young students to pursue science careers by introducing them to the scientific method. Finally, this project integrates research and education across disciplines, linking the diverse fields of animal behavior and developmental science.Using longitudinal designs with behavioral and physiological measures, this project will explore links between neonatal imitation and later social development. Neonatal imitation is an early capacity to match others' actions, such as facial expressions. The findings of earlier studies have suggested that by measuring imitation in newborn babies, we may become better able to predict their developmental trajectories. To increase measurement sensitivity and improve replicability, neonatal imitation of facial gestures will be assessed using automated facial analysis. Eye tracking will measure infants' visual attention to social and nonsocial stimuli. Infant saliva will be collected to track developmental changes in levels of oxytocin, a neuropeptide associated with social behavior. Infants will participate in semi-structured assessments of their nonverbal communicative skills. The investigator will test whether neonatal imitation can be used to better understand individual differences in early sociability and to predict healthy social development.