The Malleability of Social Group Understanding in Infancy and Early Childhood

What this Trial Is About

Researchers at the Diversity in Development Lab at UC Santa Cruz are studying how infants' brain activities respond to people from familiar and unfamiliar racial groups. This observational study focuses on typically developing infants aged 7 to 12 months and aims to understand the brain's response patterns related to social group recognition and exposure to racial diversity in their environments. During the study, infants will wear an EEG cap while watching approximately 15 minutes of videos showing people from various racial backgrounds performing actions like grabbing objects, greeting, and playing peek-a-boo. The videos will be tailored to show people from racial groups familiar and unfamiliar to the infant based on their caregiver's race. Caregivers will also provide demographic information and complete a social network survey. Participants will visit the UC Santa Cruz laboratory for the EEG recordings and surveys. Researchers will measure brain activities such as mu event-related desynchronization, frontal theta synchronization, and frontal alpha asymmetry over an average of 10 years. These measures help assess motor activation, attention, and approach motivation toward familiar and unfamiliar social groups. The study will monitor infants' brain responses and social exposure over time to better understand early social development.

Babies' Brain Responses to Strangers