LE BLOG DE VIMALA MC LURE

TOUCH INFLUENCES HOW INFANTS LEARN LANGUAGE

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 14:26:51 +0000

Tickling a baby’s toes may be cute but according to studies it’s also possible that those touches could help babies learn the words in their language. Research from Purdue University shows that a caregiver’s touch can help babies to find words in the continuous stream of speech. “We found that infants treat touches as if they are related to what ...

BRAIN-IMAGING STUDY ADDS NEW EVIDENCE THAT INFANTS TRACK OTHER PEOPLE’S BELIEFS

Mon, 21 May 2018 14:26:06 +0000

A brain-imaging study offers new support for the idea that infants can accurately track other people’s beliefs. When 7-month-old infants in the study viewed videos of an actor who saw—or failed to see—an object being moved to a new location, activity in a brain region known to play a role in processing others’ beliefs changed in the infants just as ...

RESEARCHERS STUDY INFANT-DIRECTED SINGING

Sun, 06 May 2018 15:40:14 +0000

In our Infant Massage classes, we incorporate parents singing to their babies as soon as the parents feel confident in delivering many of the strokes. When I was developing our program, I found that singing a slow, repetitive, rhythmic lullaby helped both myself and my baby to relax and have fun with the massage. I believe it is an important ...

BABIES RECOGNIZE RELATED WORDS

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 15:00:28 +0000

A new Duke University study finds that, by six to nine months, babies can already recognize that the meanings of some words, such as “car” and “stroller,” are more alike than other words, such as “car” and “juice.” “Even though there aren’t many overt signals of language knowledge in babies, language is definitely developing furiously under the surface,” said Dr. ...

STRESSED INFANTS FEEL, BUT DON’T SHOW, MORE PAIN

Tue, 03 Apr 2018 15:39:34 +0000

Stressed infants have increased pain brain activity, but this stress was not linked with their behavior, researchers found. Infants with high levels of stress exhibited larger “amplitude cortical nociceptor responses”, or responses to pain, but it was not correlated with “nociceptive behavior,” or behavior exhibiting pain, as measured by brain activity and facial expressions, reported Laura Jones, MD, of University ...

INFANTS PROCESS PAIN IN THEIR BRAINS IN DIFFERENT WAYS BASED ON AGE

Mon, 19 Mar 2018 13:16:55 +0000

Relying on behavioral indicators, such as crying, to assess pain in infants underestimates how much pain babies actually feel when they undergo stressful medical procedures. This has long-term implications on brain development and impacts future adult pain sensitivity, according to a British neurobiologist speaking at the American Pain Society Scientific Summit. “Infants respond to noxious stimulation from birth, but the ...

A PRESCRIPTION FOR TOUCH: EARLY EXPERIENCES SHAPE PRETERM BABIES’ BRAINS

Mon, 12 Feb 2018 18:32:35 +0000

Newborn babies experience the world through touch. Now, researchers who have measured the brain responses of 125 infants—including babies who were born prematurely and others who went full-term—show that a baby’s earliest experiences of touch have lasting effects on the way their young brains respond to gentle touch when they go home. The findings reported in Current Biology are yet ...

UNDER STRESS, NEWBORN BABIES SHOW GREATER BRAIN RESPONSE TO PAIN

Wed, 07 Feb 2018 21:33:40 +0000

When newborn babies are under stress, their brains show a heightened response to pain, a new study has found. However, you’d never know it from the way those infants act. The findings reported in Current Biology on November 30 show that stress leads to an apparent disconnect between babies’ brain activity and their behavior. “When newborn babies experience a painful ...

MOTHERS’ AND BABIES’ BRAINWAVES SYNCHRONIZE WHEN THEY GAZE AT EACH OTHER

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 15:23:20 +0000

Scientists have discovered that making eye contact with babies synchs their brainwaves with adults and could help them to learn and communicate more easily. Researchers already knew that when parents interact with their children their emotions and heart rate synchronize but they have never tested it with the brain until now. In a study of babies and their mothers, scientists ...

STUDY SHOWS BABIES WHO GET MORE CUDDLES HAVE THEIR GENETICS CHANGED FOR YEARS

Thu, 28 Dec 2017 15:28:38 +0000

The amount of close and comforting contact that young infants get doesn’t just keep them warm, snug, and loved. A new study says it can actually affect babies at the molecular level, and the effects can last for years. Based on the study, babies who get less physical contact and are more distressed at a young age, end up with ...

BABIES CAN TELL HOW BADLY YOU WANT SOMETHING: PART ONE

Mon, 27 Nov 2017 15:14:17 +0000

According to a new study from MIT and Harvard University, babies as young as 10 months can assess how much someone values a particular goal by observing how hard they are willing to work to achieve it. This ability requires integrating information about both the costs of obtaining a goal and the benefit gained by the person seeking it, suggesting ...

CRYING BABIES PUSH SAME ‘BUTTONS’ IN MOTHERS’ BRAINS NO MATTER THE CULTURE

Tue, 07 Nov 2017 14:04:44 +0000

This study analyzes videotapes of 684 mothers in 11 countries interacting with their infants, who were around 5 months old. The research found that mothers in 11 countries tend to react the same way to their crying infant—by picking up and talking to the baby—and that the way mothers respond seems to be programmed into their brain circuits. The observations ...