Researchers at Stanford University have discovered that conversations with babies can affect their brain circuits.

Researchers at Stanford University studied infants aged 5 to 8 months and found that caregiver conversation was associated with activation of brain regions involved in language comprehension.

By Vignesh Ramachandran

Babies aren’t known as good conversationalists, but it’s still worth talking to them. Participation in “conversations” with adults may help the baby’s brain develop, especially in areas related to language comprehension, according to a new study from Stanford University.

Researchers at Stanford University used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans in a new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience on November 30 to detect sleeping babies 5-8 months old. Evaluated brain function. They also equipped these San Francisco Bay Area babies with a special wearable device (a kind of “talk pedometer”). It recorded all clear speeches nearby in a home environment on a normal day for at least 8 hours.

Using these data, researchers were able to calculate the amount of conversation a baby had with an adult in his environment. Infants of this age cannot participate in complex conversations, but can speak syllables (word components) to respond to and elicit responses to caregivers.

“Before babies speak, our findings show that conversations with babies are important to their brain function,” he said. Lucy King, Lead author of the study and PhD candidate at Stanford University Faculty of Psychology Faculty of Humanities.. “There seems to be something special about the dynamics of these conversations between the baby and the caregiver, as opposed to the raw amount of stimulation the baby receives.”

Of the 99 babies who completed recording their native language environment as part of an observational study, 51 provided fMRI brain scans. It was not easy to collect image data for this study because the baby cannot follow the instructions that are said to be stationary during the scan. “When we started this, no one scanned the baby for research at Stanford University, so we had to set up all the steps,” said the study co-author. Ian Gottrib, Professor and Director of the Faculty of Humanities, David Starr Jordan Stanford Institute for Neurodevelopmental Development, Emotion and Psychopathology, The place where the investigation was conducted.

The researchers scheduled a brain scan near the baby’s bedtime so that the baby could sleep during the scan. The mother helped the baby to sleep in the scanning facility. For each scan, there was a researcher who acted as a “baby whisper” designated to monitor the baby throughout the scan. There was also a “parental whisper” to support the parent and help them communicate with them about the test procedure.

Researchers have found that functional connectivity in the brain region of the infant’s temporal lobe, which is associated with language comprehension (a measure of how activation in different regions of the brain synchronizes up and down). I focused my analysis on. They found that babies who had more conversations with adults in their daily lives had less synchronized activation in the regional network that handles language stimuli.

“At this point, it is not clear whether the correlation between increased conversational turns in the occipital cortex and reduced functional connectivity means that reduced connectivity is” good “or” bad. ” Said King. “I don’t know for sure, but the less connected, the more efficient the organization of the brain is.”

Interestingly, this effect on the brain was only observed in babies who had direct conversations with adults, not in babies who only listened to conversations between other adults. These findings support previous behavioral findings regarding the importance of direct conversation for baby’s language development. “Infants experience very rapid brain development during the first very important years of their lives,” King said.

Researchers at Stanford University warn that further research is needed to better understand how brain function is associated with language development in later life. However, King says the study helps establish the importance of continuing the study to understand the role of the early environment in language development. development of. “

“Using these data, we can imagine interventions, training programs, or parenting programs aimed at increasing these types of meaningful back-and-forth conversations, which later relate to the baby’s brain. I expect it to have serious consequences. Life, “Gotlib said.

The lab follows up with participating 18-month-old parents and their babies to see how they develop, including empathy, social relevance, vocabulary, and early signs of psychopathology. ..

Researchers hope that their findings can stimulate policies and practices to help future families.

“As a society, we must help our parents have the time and resources to engage in these rich interactions with their babies,” King said. “This is especially noticeable now that so many parents are taxed on everything they do juggling, including childcare, work, and chronic pandemic stress.”

Additional co-authors on a study entitled “Naturalistic language input is associated with resting functional connectivity in infancy” include Catherine L. Humphreys, now an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University. It will be. M. Catalina Camacho, currently a PhD student in neuroscience at the University of Washington in St. Louis. And David Montes, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington in St. Louis.

Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health (Grant Nos. R21MH111978 and R2131HD090493), the National Science Foundation, and the Jacobs Foundation.