Yale Study Reveals Early Brain Activity Linked to Social Behavior

Researchers at Yale University have discovered that a brain network associated with social behavior is active shortly after birth. This network, known as the social perception pathway, provides insight into how infants begin to process social stimuli such as faces, gaze, and speech. The findings were published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science and offer significant implications for understanding social engagement skills in later development.

The study’s lead researcher, Katarzyna Chawarska, who holds the Emily Fraser Beede Professorship in Child Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, explained that this research suggests that the brain processes related to social attention are established soon after birth. “Newborns are already showing preference for faces and gaze,” she noted, emphasizing the early development of social engagement capabilities.

Using data from the Developing Human Connectome Project, a study funded by the European Research Council, the researchers assessed brain imaging data from infants up to ten months old. They focused on the functional connectivity within the social perception pathway, which includes areas responsible for processing visual information and the superior temporal sulcus, crucial for interpreting faces and speech.

According to Dustin Scheinost, PhD, the senior author of the study and associate director of biomedical imaging technologies at the Yale Biomedical Imaging Institute, the connectivity within this network was robust just weeks after birth. This early connectivity suggests that social preferences observed in infants might be influenced by the functionality of this pathway.

The researchers also analyzed data from a group of children with a family history of autism spectrum disorder, a condition that can impact social skills. They found that, similar to the previous group, the social perception pathway was interconnected at birth. Following these children over time revealed that those exhibiting stronger connectivity in this pathway paid more attention to faces at four months old. This greater attention correlated with fewer social difficulties by the age of eighteen months.

“This suggests that the cortical brain processes that give rise to social attention are likely at play shortly after birth and lay the foundation for development of social engagement skills,” Chawarska stated.

The diverse research team, which includes specialists from the Child Study Center, the Department of Pediatrics, the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at Yale, as well as the Department of Statistics and Data Science, is continuing to explore this area of study. They are now investigating additional aspects of attention and monitoring a larger cohort of children as they grow.

Chawarska emphasized the importance of this research, stating, “This work will help us understand more about the brain processes that drive social attention in typical development and that may be involved in the social vulnerabilities we know are associated with autism.”

The study received support from the National Institutes of Health, with specific awards including R01MH087554 and P50MH115716, as well as from Yale University. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the early stages of social behavior development, potentially guiding future interventions for children at risk of social difficulties.