Social engagement, or shared attention between a child and caregiver, is a critical process for language and social development. Although previous EEG studies have investigated child social processing in closely controlled, experimental studies, no study has examined the interactive, reciprocal process of naturalistic social engagement. In my first paper, we examine the feasibility of a new “Social EEG” paradigm in which parents and toddlers engage in naturalistic interaction, such as book sharing. EEG data is then time-locked to a video recording of the interaction, so behavioral data can be microcoded for engagement state. Preliminary feasibility analyses revealed that 72% of dyads successfully completed the EEG paradigm, suggesting that it is possible to collect dual EEG from parents and toddlers during naturalistic interactions. In my second paper, we apply the Social EEG paradigm to investigate naturalistic social engagement, asking whether EEG power differs between social engagement and movie engagement in a priori frequency bands of interest (6-9 Hz/alpha and 3-6 Hz/theta), and whether language ability influences predicted patterns (age 24-44 mos, n = 49). Second, we ask if these patterns differ in children with autism compared to age-matched peers (age 25-48 mos, n = 24). Findings indicated a significant difference between relative alpha (p < .001) and theta power (p < .004) for social engagement compared to movie engagement. These patterns were seen regardless of ASD status or language ability. Results here provide novel insight into neural patterns underlying social engagement, and demonstrate for the first time that alpha suppression and theta enhancement are associated with naturally occurring moments of social engagement. In the future, neural markers of social engagement may be a more direct and less demanding way to study social development in children across a range of ages and social and linguistic abilities.

Creator

• Manning, Brittany L

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-kvas-9v24

Subject

• Developmental psychology
• Neurosciences

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:15820
• etdadmin_upload_855920

Date created

• 2021-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright