17 December 2008

Babies communicate from birth

Babies are born with a strong motivation to communicate with us, to understand and to be understood, a new study from researchers at the University of Dundee has shown.

Working with 90 newborn babies, aged between three and 96 hours, Dr Emese Nagy, a physician-psychologist who works at the School of Psychology at Dundee, found that babies almost immediately notice when there is a change in the way the other person relates to the baby.

In the study, the researcher spent three minutes communicating with the newborns, some of whom were just born hours ago. Dr Nagy smiled, looked at the baby, gently talked and touched the infant, just as mothers naturally do with their babies.

Dr Nagy then froze her face for three minutes and stopped responding to the babies. The babies’ reaction was clear and strong. They noticed the change and protested by looking away, then checking whether the experimenter changed her mind, and is responsive again. They then turned away, became visibly distressed, and many of them started crying.

When communication was restarted again, the babies took some time to rebuild their trust, by turning their heads and slowly re-establishing eye contact. The crying decreased and eventually stopped as babies became engaged again.

That is the first study that showed clear evidence of such intersubjective sensitivity in the newborn. Without any prior learning, they notice such subtle change in the other's behaviour and respond - and protest - strongly when the communication is disturbed.

Dr Nagy said, 'We all spend most of our social life communicating and relating to each other, it is crucial in our physical and mental well-being, and health. To feel that we belong to the other, is a basic need. This study showed that even newborn infants come to this world with a powerful sensitivity to the other person. They show eager readiness to relate, they have the skills to relate, and they protest when the other is there, but not responding to them. Such results may have implications of infant mental health, that not only older infants but even newborns, from their first hours of life, are sensitive to disturbed communication. Newborns already actively shape their interpersonal space, share our humanity, and part of our intersubjective community.'

The study was conducted in Hungary and was funded by the British Academy. The paper was published in Developmental Psychology, the journal of the American Psychological Association.

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