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Updated: Jul 30, 2025
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State of the Art Cranial Ultrasound Imaging in Neonates
Published on: February 2, 2015
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Towards imaging the infant brain at play
Aleksandra A W Dopierala1, Lauren L Emberson1
1Baby Learning Lab, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Communicative & Integrative Biology
|May 14, 2023
Summary
Understanding infant brain development requires studying object exploration during play. Naturalistic functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can reveal neural correlates of early cognitive development in everyday settings.
Area of Science:
- Developmental neuroscience
- Cognitive development
- Infant research
Background:
- Infant object exploration is key to cognitive and neural development.
- Neuroimaging studies often use controlled tasks, not reflecting real-world play complexities.
- Understanding the neural basis of everyday infant experiences is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review infant neuroimaging studies on object exploration.
- To advocate for studying neural correlates in naturalistic settings.
- To highlight functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for infant research.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing infant neuroimaging studies.
- Discussion of limitations in controlled versus naturalistic designs.
- Proposal for using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in naturalistic infant play.
Main Results:
- Current neuroimaging studies often lack ecological validity for infant play.
- Naturalistic settings provide richer data on infant neurocognitive development.
- Advances in fNIRS technology enable brain measurement during naturalistic infant activities.
Conclusions:
- Studying infant brain activity during naturalistic object exploration is vital.
- Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a promising tool for this research.
- This approach moves beyond lab-based constructs to real-world infant experiences.
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