Using neurocomputational and neuroimaging tools to understand the early development of infant visuo-spatial attention.

Infants who demonstrate deficits in attention are at an increased risk of developing later cognitive deficits and/or neurodevelopmental disorders. Identifying such deficits early in infancy may foster the development of interventions that can mitigate negative outcomes. Such interventions are most likely to be effective if we understand the mechanisms that underpin how attention works in infancy and how it develops across the first few years of life. The aim of my PhD research is to identify these mechanisms and understand how they translate into measurable differences in brain and behaviour. The proposed research will use an integrative cognitive neuroscience approach that combines cutting-edge neuroimaging and neurocomputational modelling with advanced quantitative methods (AQM) to understand how the brain and behaviour co-develop. In Studies 1 and 2, I will use a validated neurocomputational model to investigate how neural activity (fMRI & fNIRS) gives rise to infant behavioural responses in visual attention tasks. In Study 3, I will model longitudinal (fNIRS) data from two cohorts spanning ages from 6- to 54-months and assess how these longitudinal data relate to assessments of executive function and schooling outcome at 6.5 years. The integrative cognitive neuroscience approach has successfully been used to investigate adult visual working memory but has never been applied to early development. Therefore, this research not only has wide-reaching practical implications (e.g., guiding intervention) but it has major theoretical implications as well. For instance, my work will challenge existing theories of infant attentional development that propose the existence of an explicit disengaging mechanism. Further, this PhD will provide me with expert training in cutting-edge techniques that will allow me to build a comprehensive skillset ideal for future work in developmental cognitive neuroscience.