From Early Social Interactions to Language Development: Brain-to-Brain Synchrony and Natural Social Stimuli

From birth, infants engage in rich social interactions that rely on both verbal cues (e.g., caregiver speech) and nonverbal signals (e.g., body odors). My research examines how early multisensory social input shapes social brain development and supports later language outcomes.

In earlier work, I investigated social chemosignaling in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Using subliminal presentation of natural (fear-related body odor) and synthetic chemosignals, I demonstrated altered autonomic and behavioral responses in adults with autism, suggesting that atypical processing of social olfactory cues may contribute to difficulties in social communication.

Extending this work to early development, I examined how maternal chemosignals influence infant social behavior and neural coupling. Using ecological interaction paradigms and dual-EEG, I found that exposure to maternal body odor enhances infant–adult brain-to-brain synchrony, increases attention to faces, and promotes positive arousal and approach behavior during interactions with an unfamiliar adult. To examine whether mother–infant inter-brain synchrony is influenced by maternal behavior, I examined its association with two well-studied maternal behavioral orientations: sensitivity and intrusiveness. I found that higher maternal sensitivity was associated with greater mother–infant neural synchrony. Maternal sensitivity has consistently been linked to positive socio-emotional outcomes and language development.

My current research focuses on how early caregiver–infant interactions support language development. In longitudinal studies, I found that maternal sensitivity, infant-directed speech (IDS), and conversational turn-taking as early as 3 months predict language outcomes in the third year of life. Furthermore, early brain-to-brain synchrony between caregivers and infants predicts later language outcomes and mediates the association between maternal sensitivity and language development.

Together, this work identifies the importance of early social interactions for social development and language acquisition, and highlights brain-to-brain synchrony as a potential mechanism linking early caregiving to long-term developmental outcomes. Register now.