Parent attention-orienting behavior is associated with neural entropy in infancy

Cabell L Williams; Allison R Belkowitz; Madelyn G Nance; Emily T Mortman; Sonie Bae; Sheher-Bano Ahmed; Meghan H Puglia

doi:10.1111/infa.12595

Parent attention-orienting behavior is associated with neural entropy in infancy

Infancy. 2024 Apr 27:10.1111/infa.12595. doi: 10.1111/infa.12595. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Cabell L Williams¹, Allison R Belkowitz², Madelyn G Nance², Emily T Mortman², Sonie Bae², Sheher-Bano Ahmed³, Meghan H Puglia^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
² Department of Neurology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
³ Department of Neuroscience, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA.

PMID: 38676934
PMCID: PMC11512688 (available on 2025-10-27)
DOI: 10.1111/infa.12595

Abstract

Parents use joint attention to direct infants to environmental stimuli. We hypothesized that infants whose parents provide more bids for joint attention will display a more complex neural response when viewing social scenes. Sixty-one 8-month-old infants underwent electroencephalography (EEG) while viewing videos of joint- and parallel-play and participated in a free play interaction. EEG data was analyzed using multiscale entropy, which quantifies neural variability. Free play interactions assessed parent alternating gaze, a behavioral mechanism for directing attention to environmental cues. We found a significant positive association between parent alternating gaze and neural entropy in frontal and central regions. These results suggest a relationship between parent behavior and infant neural mechanisms that regulate social attention, underlying the importance of parental cues in forming neural networks.

Abstract

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