Babies' Brain Responses to Strangers
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Infants observing familiar and unfamiliar racial groups.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Infant Development. Basic parameters: 7 months — 12 months · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
Unsure about the terms? Read our patient guide →
Official title
The Malleability of Social Group Understanding in Infancy and Early Childhood
Overview
Researchers at the Diversity in Development Lab at UC Santa Cruz are investigating how babies' brain activities respond to people from familiar and unfamiliar racial backgrounds.
Detailed description
The goal of this observational study is to learn how infants' brain activities, as captured by EEG, differ for familiar or unfamiliar racial group in typically developing infants. The main questions of the study are:
* Will infants show greater event-related desynchronization (i.e., more motor system activation), frontal theta synchronization (i.e., more attention), and more positive frontal alpha asymmetry (i.e., more approach motivation) to familiar than unfamiliar racial group? * How does infants' exposure to racial diversity in their social network and neighborhoods relate to these EEG activities? Participants will visit a laboratory at the UC Santa Cruz campus for this study. Infants will put an EEG cap on and watch about 15 minutes of videos, in which people from different racial backgrounds do different actions (e.g., grabbing an object, saying hi and approaching closer, and playing peek-a-boo). Caregivers will be asked to fill out a demographic form and a social network survey.
Interventions
- Other Infants observing familiar and unfamiliar racial groups
All infants will see videos of people from familiar and unfamiliar racial backgrounds. Depending on the caregiver's race, infants will be assigned to see people who are from the same racial background as their caregiver (i.e., familiar) and people who are not.
Primary outcome measures
- Mu event related desynchronization [Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 10 years.]
- Frontal theta synchronization [Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 10 years.]
- Frontal alpha asymmetry [Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 10 years.]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- typically developing
- age 7 to 12 months
- at least 37 weeks gestation
Exclusion criteria
- any known developmental delays
- less than 37 weeks gestation
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Observational model
- Case-only
Study locations
United States · 1 center
- Social Science 2 Building — Santa Cruz
Publications
- Hwang HG, Debnath R, Meyer M, Salo VC, Fox NA, Woodward A. Neighborhood racial demographics predict infants' neural responses to people of different races. Dev Sci. 2021 Jul;24(4):e13070. doi: 10.1111/desc.13070. Epub 2020 Dec 16. PMID 33277794
Identifiers
NCT: NCT06550245 · HS-FY2023-23 Study 2