The neurocognitive development of infants and young children

This proposal is a general proposal for neurocognitive research studying the
neurocognitive development of children from 3 months of age up to 4 years. The
research described in this proposal is fundamental and aims at understanding
the normal cognitive development of healthy children. The ultimate goal of our
research program is to increase our insight into early social-cognitive
development. Research questions of our research centre are for example: How do
infants learn to speak and understand language? How do young children make
sense of what other people do, feel, and think? How do children become
proficient actors themselves and how do they ultimately learn to act together
with others? And which neurocognitive mechanisms support the development of
these social-cognitive skills?
More concretely, research questions will be operationalized as follows:
1) Until / from which age do children process the information provided in
condition A differently than information provided in condition B?
2) Does a child who is proficient in skill X process information from condition
A differently than information from condition B? (in contrast to children who
are not yet proficient in skill X)
3) Is the score on behavioural measure X of an individual associated with the
difference in information processing between condition A and B?
Neurocognitive processing will be assessed using EEG or fNIRS. In some
experiments, gaze data will be measured (gathered by means of a Tobii
near-infrared eye-tracker). Different experiments will address specific
research questions. In such an experiment, the skill could be for instance
*independent walking*, *clapping hands*, or *pronouncing babbles*. For
behavioural measures, the researchers will make use of validated questionnaires
for the parents (e.g., the Dutch version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative
Development Inventory, Zink & Lejaegere, 2001), or scales assessing behavioural
development such as the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (van der Meulen,
Ruiter, Lutje Spelberg, & Smrkovsky, 2002). The children will be presented with
different stimulus material, consisting of visual, auditory, or tactile
stimuli, and possibly a combination thereof. Furthermore, depending on the
research question and the age group, the researcher might offer tasks (such as
simple games) suited to the level of development of the age group. In such
experiments, the focus is on associations between behaviour and brain
responses.

A systematic investigation of the neurocognitive underpinnings of cognitive
development in young children.

We will make use of three types of designs: 1) within subject comparisons, 2)
between subjects comparisons: different age groups, 3) between subjects
comparisons: same age group, but different scores on behavioural tasks /
skills.

The studies aim to investigate research questions from the field of
developmental cognitive neuroscience. Necessarily, the study involves infants
and young children as participants. There are no known risks associated with
participation in the proposed research. The burden for both participant and
caregiver are kept as low as possible, see for a more elaborate description the
research protocol (page 18-26).