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PNAS

Speaker gaze increases information coupling between infant and adult brains

Overview of attention for article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, November 2017
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (96th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
41 news outlets
blogs
3 blogs
twitter
277 X users
facebook
11 Facebook pages
reddit
1 Redditor
video
1 YouTube creator

Citations

dimensions_citation
212 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
432 Mendeley
Title
Speaker gaze increases information coupling between infant and adult brains
Published in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, November 2017
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1702493114
Pubmed ID
Authors

Victoria Leong, Elizabeth Byrne, Kaili Clackson, Stanimira Georgieva, Sarah Lam, Sam Wass

Abstract

When infants and adults communicate, they exchange social signals of availability and communicative intention such as eye gaze. Previous research indicates that when communication is successful, close temporal dependencies arise between adult speakers' and listeners' neural activity. However, it is not known whether similar neural contingencies exist within adult-infant dyads. Here, we used dual-electroencephalography to assess whether direct gaze increases neural coupling between adults and infants during screen-based and live interactions. In experiment 1 (n = 17), infants viewed videos of an adult who was singing nursery rhymes with (i) direct gaze (looking forward), (ii) indirect gaze (head and eyes averted by 20°), or (iii) direct-oblique gaze (head averted but eyes orientated forward). In experiment 2 (n = 19), infants viewed the same adult in a live context, singing with direct or indirect gaze. Gaze-related changes in adult-infant neural network connectivity were measured using partial directed coherence. Across both experiments, the adult had a significant (Granger) causal influence on infants' neural activity, which was stronger during direct and direct-oblique gaze relative to indirect gaze. During live interactions, infants also influenced the adult more during direct than indirect gaze. Further, infants vocalized more frequently during live direct gaze, and individual infants who vocalized longer also elicited stronger synchronization from the adult. These results demonstrate that direct gaze strengthens bidirectional adult-infant neural connectivity during communication. Thus, ostensive social signals could act to bring brains into mutual temporal alignment, creating a joint-networked state that is structured to facilitate information transfer during early communication and learning.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 277 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 432 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 432 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 86 20%
Student > Master 62 14%
Researcher 59 14%
Student > Bachelor 41 9%
Student > Doctoral Student 22 5%
Other 58 13%
Unknown 104 24%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 162 38%
Neuroscience 46 11%
Medicine and Dentistry 12 3%
Engineering 12 3%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 11 3%
Other 55 13%
Unknown 134 31%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 515. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 29 July 2023.
All research outputs
#49,709
of 25,552,205 outputs
Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#1,289
of 103,344 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#1,060
of 447,802 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#35
of 930 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,552,205 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 103,344 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 39.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 447,802 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 930 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.