Babies start to process social situations as early as five months old, a study revealed on Wednesday.
A new wearable headgear device developed by University College London (UCL) and Birkbeck University has been able to measure activity in a baby’s brain for the first time using light waves.
Researchers say the technology could help to map the connections between different brain regions and shed light on conditions such as autism, dyslexia and ADHD.
The data gives scientists the most complete picture to date of brain functions like hearing, vision and cognitive processing outside a conventional brain scanner.
The new device was tested on sixteen babies aged five-to-seven months. Wearing the device, the babies sat on their parent's lap and were shown videos of actors singing nursery rhymes to mimic a social scenario.
They were also shown videos of moving toys, such as a ball rolling down a ramp, to mimic a non-social scenario.
Researchers observed differences in brain activity between the two scenarios.
They found unexpected activity in the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that processes emotions, in response to social stimuli – appearing to confirm that babies can process what is happening to them in social situations.
Dr Liam Collins-Jones, first author of the study from UCL Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, said: “The new method allows us to observe what's happening across the whole outer brain surface underlying the scalp, which is a big step forward. It opens up possibilities to spot interactions between different areas and detect activity in areas that we might not have known to look at previously.
“This more complete picture of brain activity could enhance our understanding of how the baby brain functions as it interacts with the surrounding world, which could help us optimise support for neurodiverse children early in life.”
Professor Emily Jones, an author of the study from Birkbeck, University of London, said: “The technology developed and tested in this study is a stepping stone towards a better understanding of the brain processes that underlie social development, which we haven't been able to observe before, outside of the very restrictive bounds of an MRI scanner.
"With this we should be able to see what's happening in babies' brains as they play, learn and interact with other people in a very natural way."
