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The impact of caregiver inhibitory control on infant visual working memory
Christina Davidson1, Aimee Theyer1, Ghada Amaireh1
1School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Insights
Caregiver inhibitory control efficiency indirectly influences infant visual working memory (VWM) development. This link is mediated by brain activity in infants, specifically left-lateralized fronto-parietal engagement during VWM tasks.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Infant Cognition
Background:
- Visual working memory (VWM) is crucial for cognitive development and academic success.
- Caregiver influence on infant cognitive functions, including VWM, is significant.
- Understanding the early caregiver-infant interaction in VWM development is essential.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between caregiver inhibitory control efficiency and infant VWM function.
- To explore the neural mechanisms underlying this potential association using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
Main Methods:
- Caregivers completed a Go-NoGo task to assess inhibitory control efficiency.
- Infant VWM was assessed using a preferential looking task with varying memory loads (1, 2, or 3 items).
- fNIRS recorded brain activation in both caregivers and infants during tasks.
Main Results:
- No direct behavioral association was found between caregiver inhibitory control efficiency and infant VWM performance.
- An indirect association emerged: caregiver efficiency correlated with infant VWM via left-lateralized fronto-parietal brain engagement.
- Infants of less efficient caregivers showed reduced left-lateralized parietal activation with increasing VWM load and performance.
Conclusions:
- Caregiver inhibitory control efficiency may indirectly shape infant VWM development through neural pathways.
- Left-lateralized fronto-parietal engagement in infants is a potential mediator in the caregiver-infant VWM relationship.
- These findings highlight the subtle yet significant role of caregiver executive functions in early neurocognitive development.
Abstract:
Visual working memory (VWM) emerges in the first year of life and has far-reaching implications for academic and later life outcomes. Given that caregivers play a significant role in shaping cognitive function in children, it is important to understand how they might impact VWM development as early as infancy. The current study investigated whether caregivers' efficiency of regulating inhibitory control was associated with VWM function in their infants. Eighty-eight caregivers were presented with a Go-NoGo task to assess inhibitory control. An efficiency score was calculated using their behavioural responses. Eighty-six 6-to-10-month-old infants were presented with a preferential looking task to assess VWM function. VWM load was manipulated across one (low load), two (medium load) and three (high load) items. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy was used to record brain activation from caregivers and their infants. We found no direct association between caregiver efficiency and infant VWM behaviour. However, we found an indirect association - caregiver efficiency was linked to infant VWM through left-lateralized fronto-parietal engagement. Specifically, infants with low efficiency caregivers showed decreasing left-lateralized parietal engagement with increasing VWM performance at the medium and high loads compared to infants with high efficiency caregivers, who did not show any load- or performance-dependent modulation. Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature examining the role that caregivers play in early neurocognitive development.
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