Identifying The Role of Caregiver-Infant Coupling in Language Development

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This project will reveal how behavioural and neural coupling emerge and scaffold languagedevelopment by studying interactions between caregivers and infants across 1 week to 2years of age. Coupling refers to a state of synergetic alignment between two individuals thatmakes it possible to establish shared understanding. The specific aims of the project are to:1) document the emergence of behavioural coupling across 1- to 9-weeks of age bydetermining when behavioural coupling, such as mutual gaze and affect mirroring, firstappears, and how the rate of coupling changes across this period.2) document how more complex forms of coupling at 9 months of age relevant to wordlearning (e.g., vocal imitation and joint attention) emerge from mirroring.3) determine how language use at all ages relates to the frequency and duration ofcoupling.4) determine how behavioural coupling is linked to neural coupling at 4 months of age, andidentify whether the behaviours that most frequently lead to behavioural coupling also leadto the most robust neural coupling, using functional Near-Infra-Red Spectroscopy, or fNIRS.This project will reveal the mechanisms by which infants and caregivers become alignedduring interaction, and how language use emerges from this process.BackgroundCoupling refers to the ability to "get on the same page" with others, or to states in whichindividuals successfully coordinate their attention, establish shared knowledge states, andcooperate (Stephens et al., 2010). Language is a powerful tool for generating couplingbecause it allows sharing abstract concepts and planning with a high degree of precision.Paradoxically, there is evidence that a shared symbolic language requires establishingmutual understanding - via coupling - to emerge in the first place (Stolk et al., 2014).However, little is known about how language-driven coupling emerges.