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Neural signatures to prosocial and antisocial interactions in young infants

Victoria Licht1, Margaret Addabbo, Elena Nava1

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca, Milano, Italy.

Social Neuroscience
|August 23, 2023
PubMed

Insights

Five-month-old infants show distinct brain responses to prosocial and antisocial interactions. Neural sensitivity to helping and hindering events reveals early social processing in preverbal infants.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Neuroscience
  • Social Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Infant Psychology

Background:

  • Infants exhibit behavioral preferences for prosocial stimuli.
  • Limited research exists on the neural underpinnings of infant responses to social interactions.
  • Understanding early social processing is crucial for developmental trajectories.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural correlates of preverbal infants' responses to prosocial versus antisocial interactions.
  • To examine the temporal dynamics of brain activity during the observation of helping and hindering events.
  • To explore the relationship between infant temperament and neural responses to social stimuli.

Main Methods:

  • Event-Related Potentials (ERP) were recorded from 5-month-old infants (N=24).
  • Infants were familiarized with prosocial (helping) and antisocial (hindering) video scenes.
  • Analysis focused on specific ERP components (N290, Nc, LPP) and their relation to temperament.

Main Results:

  • Infants demonstrated an early neural discrimination between helping and hindering events (N290 response).
  • Antisocial events elicited greater attention (Nc component) than prosocial events.
  • Prosocial events engaged greater cognitive evaluation (LPP component) compared to antisocial events.
  • Higher effortful control in infants correlated with increased N290 sensitivity to antisocial scenes.

Conclusions:

  • Preverbal infants possess the neural capacity to differentiate between prosocial and antisocial actions early in processing.
  • Infant brain responses to social interactions involve both attentional and cognitive evaluative processes.
  • Temperament, specifically effortful control, influences neural sensitivity to social stimuli in infancy.

Keywords:
ERPN290Ncinfantmoral sense

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