Periodic Reporting for period 4 - ONACSA (Oscillatory neural and autonomic correlates of social attunedness during early life: new mechanistic insights into how we learn to learn from one another)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2025-03-01 do 2025-08-31
Early development begins in the womb. After birth, infants spend their first months in their parents’ arms and gradually transition to childcare, nursery, or school. One of the most important changes during this time is learning to move from co-regulation, where caregivers guide a child’s behaviour, to self-regulation, where children manage their own thoughts, emotions, and actions. This transition is essential for healthy social, emotional, and cognitive development, laying the foundation for attention, learning, and lifelong well-being.
Our project aimed to understand how this shift from co-regulation to self-regulation happens in everyday life. Rather than relying solely on traditional laboratory experiments, we collected naturalistic data from infants and caregivers at home and in the lab. Using wearable devices, cameras, and non-invasive brain and heart monitoring, we observed daily interactions and physiological responses. This approach allowed us to see how self-regulation emerges through relationships and environmental interactions rather than as an abstract skill measured in isolation.
We recruited over 100 families and followed infants and caregivers longitudinally, recording brain activity, heart rhythms, and behaviours at multiple ages. Six PhD researchers analysed these rich datasets from different perspectives, exploring how children’s self-regulation emerges and how infants and caregivers synchronize their behaviours and physiological states over time. This project is the first to combine home-based monitoring and lab-based measurements to study infant-caregiver interactions longitudinally. By observing natural behaviours over time, we gained insights into the dynamic processes of early development that have never been captured before. Our innovative methods advance the state of the art by moving beyond traditional lab-based studies, providing a deeper understanding of how self-regulation develops in context. We successfully collected and analysed extensive data, developed new methods for studying naturalistic interactions, and maintained robust recruitment despite challenges such as COVID-19 disruptions. The project generated 17 publications, multiple conference presentations, and public engagement activities, including outreach events celebrating local families. Media coverage has helped raise awareness of early childhood development research. Our findings are expected to have a significant impact, informing early childhood education, parenting strategies, and interventions that support children’s healthy growth. By revealing how self-regulation emerges naturally from everyday interactions, the project provides guidance for supporting children’s cognitive, emotional, and social development in practical, real-world settings.
For more information, visit our project website: www.isey.org
Our project aimed to understand how this shift from co-regulation to self-regulation happens in everyday life. Rather than relying solely on traditional laboratory experiments, we collected naturalistic data from infants and caregivers at home and in the lab. Using wearable devices, cameras, and non-invasive brain and heart monitoring, we observed daily interactions and physiological responses. This approach allowed us to see how self-regulation emerges through relationships and environmental interactions rather than as an abstract skill measured in isolation.
We recruited over 100 families and followed infants and caregivers longitudinally, recording brain activity, heart rhythms, and behaviours at multiple ages. Six PhD researchers analysed these rich datasets from different perspectives, exploring how children’s self-regulation emerges and how infants and caregivers synchronize their behaviours and physiological states over time. This project is the first to combine home-based monitoring and lab-based measurements to study infant-caregiver interactions longitudinally. By observing natural behaviours over time, we gained insights into the dynamic processes of early development that have never been captured before. Our innovative methods advance the state of the art by moving beyond traditional lab-based studies, providing a deeper understanding of how self-regulation develops in context. We successfully collected and analysed extensive data, developed new methods for studying naturalistic interactions, and maintained robust recruitment despite challenges such as COVID-19 disruptions. The project generated 17 publications, multiple conference presentations, and public engagement activities, including outreach events celebrating local families. Media coverage has helped raise awareness of early childhood development research. Our findings are expected to have a significant impact, informing early childhood education, parenting strategies, and interventions that support children’s healthy growth. By revealing how self-regulation emerges naturally from everyday interactions, the project provides guidance for supporting children’s cognitive, emotional, and social development in practical, real-world settings.
For more information, visit our project website: www.isey.org
Work Package 1 (WP1), as specified in Annexe 1 of the grant agreement, has adequately progressed in this second period. We have collected longitudinal data at 5-, 10-, 15- and 30- months of age. The 5-month-old data was concluded in the last period, totalling 123 infant- caregiver pairs. For 10-month-olds, we have successfully tested an additional 7 infant-caregiver dyads (90 in total, considering the previous periods). For 15-month-olds, an additional 2 infant-caregiver dyads were tested (61 in total, considering the last periods). Finally, for 30-month- olds, an additional 4 infant-caregiver pairs were successfully tested, totalling in a final amount of 61 infant-caregiver pairs. In total, our longitudinal data included 336 infant-caregiver dyads over the different age categories.
Implementation of WP1 has included home and lab data collection routines. In the lab, we have successfully collected data using eye-tracking, EEG, autonomic monitors, and hand-coded video techniques (Annex 1). In the home, we have used wearable devices that collect ECG and movement (as described in Annex 1). In addition, we have collected GPS, audio, and wearable camera data. Paradigms I-1, I-3, I-4, and I-5 (Annex 1) have been implemented for many of the participants. Overall, we are on track with our projected testing schedule.
WP2, the intervention was also implemented. N=42 infants completed the attention training intervention, N=22 completed the parent training intervention and N=42 completed the control group. The parent training intervention was discontinued as initial results showed that training effects were not observed in this group, so it was judged best to discontinue at this stage.
Achievements include eleven conference presentations, sixteen poster presentations and the publication of 26 papers, including literature reviews, methods and results papers. Also, the PhD students have lectured undergraduate students on the new methods they have developed and the results they have gathered from the project. Media/public engagement actions have included a summer 2022 outreach party, where we celebrated the families from our local community who have taken part in our project and presented results from our findings.
Implementation of WP1 has included home and lab data collection routines. In the lab, we have successfully collected data using eye-tracking, EEG, autonomic monitors, and hand-coded video techniques (Annex 1). In the home, we have used wearable devices that collect ECG and movement (as described in Annex 1). In addition, we have collected GPS, audio, and wearable camera data. Paradigms I-1, I-3, I-4, and I-5 (Annex 1) have been implemented for many of the participants. Overall, we are on track with our projected testing schedule.
WP2, the intervention was also implemented. N=42 infants completed the attention training intervention, N=22 completed the parent training intervention and N=42 completed the control group. The parent training intervention was discontinued as initial results showed that training effects were not observed in this group, so it was judged best to discontinue at this stage.
Achievements include eleven conference presentations, sixteen poster presentations and the publication of 26 papers, including literature reviews, methods and results papers. Also, the PhD students have lectured undergraduate students on the new methods they have developed and the results they have gathered from the project. Media/public engagement actions have included a summer 2022 outreach party, where we celebrated the families from our local community who have taken part in our project and presented results from our findings.
Our project was the first project anywhere in the world to collect data looking at interpersonal neural synchrony in interacting infants and caregivers and how it changes longitudinally over time. We were also the first project anywhere in the world to take home recordings from infants and caregivers examining physiological fluctuations, microphone and camera data to look at moment-by-moment co-fluctuations in behaviours and physiological changes. As anticipated, we found a large number of novel results emerge from this project.