Becoming Social

Studying the development of the social brain

With this study, we want to examine how babies’ social brain develops.

For example, we use a technique called NIRS to measure brain activation while babies are exposed to different social stimuli (e.g. they watch faces on a screen, listen to sounds, or feel a gentle touch on their limbs).

NIRS uses near-infrared light to safely measure oxygenation of the blood in the brain which tells us which areas of the brain are busy responding to something.