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This post is by associate Triage Practitioner, and guest blogger, Matthew Savage 

Developmental psychology has evolved vastly over the past 100 years, though much of the current research today is still influenced by the theories of three prominent figures; Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky and John Bowlby. Originally it was thought that babies were simply clueless, blank slates which were born into the world fully mailable to the environment around them. However, further research by cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists has challenged this idea, suggesting that babies are born with abilities that are vital to survival and that certain pieces of knowledge may well be hardwired into our brains at birth. For example:

  • Abstract thought – The ability to think and reason abstractly can be seen as uniquely human. It involves the ability to think about concepts which are not concrete experiences objects, people or situations but symbolic and hypothetical situations (Cherry, 2021). Susan Hespos, a Professor at the Northwestern University Psychology Department in the USA, has developed a number of experiments to understand early cognitive capacities and how these can change over time, including abstract thought. Her research suggests that babies will look at things they find interesting and look away when they are no longer interested. Using this idea, infant attention can be timed when presenting something normal and then something unexpected, such as a box not falling from a table. She believes infants know an unsupported object should fall to the ground as early as 4 months, with babies attending to the unexpected event for double the amount of time compared to the expected event (Hespos, 1996). This suggests that babies can understand abstract thoughts and concepts very early on and may even be born with such concepts engrained in the brain.

  • Object permanence – Another interesting concept is whether or not babies know that an object still exists if it goes behind a screen or is covered up. Previously, it was believed this was an understanding developed at around 9 months (Piaget, 1964) and is a concept known as object permanence. Research now suggests it may also be earlier and you will know when this skill is starting to develop as a child will look around for a dropped toy or search of a lost or hidden item. Developing the understanding that a person or object still exists even when you cannot see or hear them is vital to development as it is the forerunner for many other important understandings such as reasoning, memory and language development, as well as developing secure attachments to people and objects instead of separation anxiety.

  • Facial recognition – Rebecca Saxe, a professor of cognitive neuroscience and associate department head at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, has dedicated her career to understanding where knowledge comes from. She believes the only way to answer this is to study the brain of babies. Prior to her research, the youngest brains that had been scanned whilst children were awake was 5 years old due to MRI machines being too distressing for young infants. However, with some changes in protocols, MRI machines were used to examine a number of infant brains whilst watching faces and landscapes on the screen in an attempt to work out which brain regions might be involved in facial recognition. It was found that baby brain activity was very similar to an adult when processing faces and landscapes, suggesting a predisposition to such images, or “hardwiring” at birth and in the first few months. What was most surprising was the observation of activity in the middle of the frontal lobe when babies were seeing faces, a lobe which is responsible for higher level functioning. This may suggest that babies are born with adaptions for seeing and processing other people and faces as this region, attributing attention, care and potentially other emotions to the images (Saxe, 2015).

  • Differentiation and pruning - Kang Lee of the University of Toronto used his own personal experiences in his research trying to understand how babies learn to process faces. When he arrived in the western world from China he notes that everything was visually shocking to him and many foreign faces looked very similar. This made him consider how people learn to see individual faces and if they are grouped together at all. Lee found that, as babies see more and more faces, they start to lose the ability to recognise facial attributes of other species, such as monkeys and even other humans of a different ethnicity (Lee, 2017). Lee found that babies at 6 months can recognise every individual but by 9 months they lose the ability to do this and will start to show preference for own-race faces. This grouping of people, animals and a lower ability to distinguish between individuals is known as pruning. Pruning is the natural reduction of lesser used neurons, synapses and axons in the brain of mammals and starts around 12 months (Tierney, 2009).

What ways can we ensure a baby has the best chance of optimal neurodevelopment?

Whilst it can be extremely tiring to simply take care of a new-born baby, considering a few different ways of boosting neurodevelopment is important to ensure your baby has the best chances of optimal neurodevelopment. Some things to consider are:

  • A mothers nutrition is vital – First and foremost, ensuring a baby has optimal nutrition for neuronal development is the first thing to consider. Multiple studies have investigated metabolic pathways that influence breast milk compositions and have shown some direct and indirect links between a mother’s nutritional intake and the milk she produces (Bravi et al., 2016) and these start during pregnancy. Studies have noted links between a mother’s consumption of fluoride, Vitamin A, Vitamin B12, Vitamin C, iodine (Leung et al., 2012) and fatty acid content, including docosahexaenoic (DHA) and arachidonic (ARA) (Bravi, 2016; Keikha, 2017). Breast milk also varies not only between individuals and populations (Innis, 2007) but also across the course of lactation (Young et al., 2019). With this in mind, it is vital that pregnant women and new mothers ensure they are getting optimal intake of macro and micronutrients, which may include supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids as an example, something which has been shown to be linked to the development of neuronal pathways.

  • Constant exposure - Exposing your baby to as many different experiences in terms of languages, tastes, faces, and smells can help an infant to be prepared for a globalised world (Lee, 2017). A baby can pick up any language they hear regularly much easier than an adult, especially when the language is heard before 12 months. Bilingual experience has been linked to improved cognitive abilities, such as problem solving (Byers-Heinlein K, Lew-Williams, 2013). In addition to this, talking to your baby in drawn out vowels and the use of over exaggerated facial expressions can help them with understanding. Exposing babies to books early on, with large words and pictures, can also really contribute to helping your baby understand spoken words, also known as receptive language. This is more important than developing their expressive language (speaking) as it will bolster the higher-level cognitive functioning such as abstract thought. Toys such as stacking blocks can develop “cause and effect” interactions, vital to the development of reasoning and logic.

  • Be attentive – Although your baby may not be able to tell you directly what they are thinking, often examining their eye gaze will give you a clue as to what is wrong or where their attention is. From around 4-6 months babies have good control over their eye movement. Attend to this as well as pointing as an infant develops to understand what they are trying to explore. Your attention to this will show your baby that it is important to you also, meaning they are more likely to continue exploration, something vital for neurodevelopment (Hespos, 1996).

  • Play with a purpose – Games such as Peek-a-boo and hide and seek may seem like just a bit of fun but they are actually teaching your infant about object permeance, which can contribute to positive social behaviours such as reductions in separation anxiety and insecure attachments. Playing these games with your infant can help your child understand that your absence is only temporary, making them happier to play on their own, be held by other people or be securely attached to others, something which is vital to develop early (Sullivan et al, 2011).

 

About Matt Savage

Matthew Savage is an associate triage practitioner and neurological personal trainer. He has two masters degrees, one in psychology, another in clinical neuroscience at the distinction level and is also a Level 3 Personal trainer. Matthew combines his knowledge and interest in neuroscience, cognitive and physical rehabilitation and general wellbeing to provide positive physical and mental support to his clients.

References 

Bravi F, Wiens F, Decarli A, Dal Pont A, Agostoni C, Ferraroni M. Impact of maternal nutrition on breast-milk composition: a systematic review. Am J Clin Nutr. 2016 Sep;104(3):646-62. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.115.120881. Epub 2016 Aug 17. PMID: 27534637.

Brennan D. What Age Do Babies Have Object Permanence? Available online at: https://www.webmd.com/baby/what-age-do-babies-have-object-permanence

Byers-Heinlein K, Lew-Williams C. Bilingualism in the Early Years: What the Science Says. Learn Landsc. 2013;7(1):95-112.

Cherry K, What is abstract thinking? Verywellmind. Available online at: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-abstract-reasoning-5181522

Hespos SJ, Ferry AL, Anderson EM, Hollenbeck EN, Rips LJ. Five-Month-Old Infants Have General Knowledge of How Nonsolid Substances Behave and Interact. Psychol Sci. 2016 Feb;27(2):244-56. doi: 10.1177/0956797615617897. Epub 2016 Jan 7. PMID: 26744069.

Keikha M, Shayan-Moghadam R, Bahreynian M, Kelishadi R. Nutritional supplements and mother's milk composition: a systematic review of interventional studies. Int Breastfeed J. 2021;16(1):1. Published 2021 Jan 4. doi:10.1186/s13006-020-00354-0

Lee K, Quinn PC, Pascalis O. Face race processing and racial bias in early development: A perceptual-social linkage. Curr Dir Psychol Sci. 2017;26(3):256-262. doi:10.1177/0963721417690276

Sullivan R, Perry R, Sloan A, Kleinhaus K, Burtchen N. Infant bonding and attachment to the caregiver: insights from basic and clinical science. Clin Perinatol. 2011;38(4):643-655. doi:10.1016/j.clp.2011.08.011

Tierney AL, Nelson CA 3rd. Brain Development and the Role of Experience in the Early Years. Zero Three. 2009;30(2):9-13.

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