The phenomenon and mechanisms of innate intersubjectivity: Newborns' sensitivity to communication disturbance
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Dundee
Department Name: Psychology
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Emese Nagy (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Nagy E
(2017)
Neonates' responses to repeated exposure to a still face.
in PloS one
Nagy E
(2011)
The newborn infant: a missing stage in developmental psychology
in Infant and Child Development
Nagy, E
(2014)
Challenges when studying the behaviour of the human neonate.
in The Psychology of the Neonate - Workshop, Dundee, Scotland, 2014.
Nagy, E
(2017)
Conscious engagement in the newborn infant.
Nagy, E
(2009)
The Intersubjective Newborn: The origin and 'anatomy' of the first dialogue.
in VIG Video Interaction Guidance Conference, Dundee
Nagy, E
(2014)
Why is the newborn missing from psychology?
in The Psychology of the Neonate - Workshop, Dundee, Scotland, 2014.
Nagy, E
(2014)
Homo Provocans: Communication with human neonates.
in World Association for Infant Mental Health Congress
Nagy, E
(2011)
Communicative sensitivity, self-regulation, and resilience: Communications with newborn infants
in 15th European Conference on Developmental Psychology
Nagy, E
(2014)
The Psychology of the Neonate
in APCP and OT Neonatal Groups Study Day : Infant Mental Health
| Description | Summary: An unique database was collected and coded within this 20 months long project. The results led to a new field in psychology, both methodologically and conceptually. The research project enabled the PI to facilitate the emergence of 'neonatal psychology' with a sound empirical foundation. New models supported by the wealth of these data will transform our understanding of the neonate and the neonatal stage of development. Such a transformed view of the newborn will lead to a change in the way perinatal period is treated. The results highlight an unexpected and efficient adaptive response that enables newborn babies to notice and utilize the availability of a responsive caretaker and to facilitate their own psychophysiological recovery. Psychotherapists found these results particularly important that would challenge and overturn the widely held traditional view of a 'helpless', dependent infant who is the outcome of the caretaking process and the mother. Instead, the results call for a view of the socially competent and resilient newborn within a dynamic interactive process, where the neonate, based on her previous experiences, actively initiates increasingly efficient self-other regulatory processes. In detail: Seven studies, involving 322 newborn infants measured their reactions to communication disturbances. Given that the field is under-researched and the continuing debate over neonatal intentionality, the collected data are unique, and represent probably the largest neonatal behavioural database to date. The results showed that all types of communication disturbance caused prolonged distress to the newborn infants and the outcome results cannot be attributable to situational, chance factors. Whether human neonates' social responsivity can be affected by their previous interpersonal experience was also examined. The results showed that what babies 'learnt' with experience was not to ignore the communication violations but to regulate their own recovery by involving the available interaction partner into the repair process. The importance of the period following the disturbance was confirmed by physiological data. Babies subjected to the communication violation, but not controls, increased their heart rate after the still face phase, concurrently with the behavioural spill-over effects. |
| Exploitation Route | a) Further empirical work on the importance of neonatal period and to describe the psychology of the neonate b) New research projects in applied areas: such as the use of the still face situation as a paradigm in psychotherapies and applied areas. c) Psychotherapies - the results transform the role and responsibilities of the parent, both healthy and with mental health problems; d) The views of mental health professionals, physicians, midwives, nurses and early years educators on the earliest stage of development and the newborn period e) Intervention methods f) Transform our views on parenting. g) Colleagues with a focus on disseminating research on early years have been talking about the PI's results from the project. Such mutual dissemination of research data by colleagues in the field is common and serves the benefit of all parties involved. For example, Dr. Suzanne Zeedyk talked about the PI's research to approximately 3000 people across the UK and Europe. She talked to groups of parents, childminders, teachers, mental health professionals, midwives, and addressed policy makers at the Scottish Parliament on the importance of early years, and cited empirical data from the research project. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Healthcare |
| Description | As a result of the research and dissemination, user groups outside the research community, such as psychotherapists, psychoanalytic practitioners, professionals and trainees working with the care of preterm and term neonates and their families will learn about the 'intersubjective newborn' who is a) socially responsive to her caretakers and her environment from the moment of birth, experiences interpersonal communication violations as a major stress, and it takes a long time for her to recover; and 2) is able to actively influence her own social environment, to adaptively learn from previous social experiences, and based on these experiences, she is able to initiate the process of repair when interactions 'go wrong', and are able to actively seek out and utilize the responsive caretaker. Such empirical results have an impact on a) Psychotherapies - the results transform the role and responsibilities of the parent, both healthy and with mental health problems; b) Intervention methods - contributed to the empirical and theoretical concepts behind Video Interaction Guidance (VIG, Kennedy et al., 2011) that is a nationally and internationally widely used method for intervention c) Transform our views on parenting. The 'exclusive role' of the parent on the developmental outcome of their young infants is now being shifted towards a sensitively co-regulated dyad. Parents and professionals learn that the newborn infant sensitively monitors and adaptively utilizes parental caretaking according to her needs. Maternal mental health is being put into a new light as we learn the aspects of maternal behaviours and sensitivity that the newborn infant is seeking out. These studies, using the still face paradigm and its modifications, demonstrated that human neonates sensitively perceive and adjust their behaviour according to the social responsiveness of their interaction partner. When the interaction partner became unresponsive, newborns also changed their behaviour, decreased eye contact, and displayed signs of distress. Even after the interaction partner resumed responsiveness, the effects of the communication disturbance persisted, in the form of prolonged behavioural stress and crying, and also on psychophysiological level, indexed by elevated heart rate. The results showed that all types of communication disturbance caused such prolonged distress and the results were not due to situational factors or chance. Whether this social responsivity in the newborn infant is affected by their previous interpersonal experience was explored in Study 2. The results showed that babies found the interpersonal violation stressful each time it was administered, thus they did not 'learn' to ignore it. What they 'learnt' with experience was to speed up their recovery, to notice the available caregiver sooner, and 'let them help' in the restoration. Psychotherapists and psychoanalysts found the results of the ability of the neonate particularly important after the PI gave an invited talk. The outputs have been cited in the textbook of Video Interactive Guidance (Kennedy, Landor, & Todd, 2011). The PI has been involved in disseminating the results to user groups. She has been invited to talk to a large group of psychoanalysts and psychotherapists at the Joint Meeting of the Brazilian and French Psychoanalytic Societies; she gave a key-note talk at the International Video Interaction Guidance Conference that brought together researchers and practitioners across a wide range of fields. Also, she talked about the research and the results to nurses, midwifes, obstetricians and neonatologists at the site of research, as well as to over 330 parents of newborn infants while working on the research project. Additionally, colleagues with a focus on disseminating research on early years have been talking about the PI's results from the project. Such mutual dissemination of research data by colleagues in the field is common and serves the benefit of all parties involved. For example, Dr. Suzanne Zeedyk talked about the PI's research to approximately 3000 people across the UK and Europe. She talked to groups of parents, childminders, teachers, mental health professionals, midwives, and addressed policy makers at the Scottish Parliament on the importance of early years, and cited empirical data from the research project. The following user groups benefit from the research and related expertise: medical professionals, paediatricians, obstetricians, neonatologists, general practitioners, psychiatrists; mental health and infant mental health professionals; psychotherapists working in early prevention and intervention; early-years educators; midwives, social workers and professionals working with perinatal mothers and babies, and most importantly parents and families of newborns. The notion of the social newborn and the ability of neonates to engage in social interactions with their parents will need to be communicated to all user groups, and will lead to short- and long-term changes in attitudes and services. Hopefully, the importance of the neonatal period in life will soon be acknowledged by mental health and social service programmes, and prevention efforts will start as early as the birth of a child. Given the scarce knowledge on the behaviour of the newborn infant, the expected outcome for Study 2 has intentionally been left open-ended in the original proposal. While either habituation or the stability of the responses to the procedure were possible outcomes, the emerging pattern was much richer than expected. The data not only showed that babies experienced the still face manipulation very stressful even after the second administration, and with a comparable spill-over effect of distress and crying well beyond the still face phase was over and the experimenter resumed communication, but an important evidence for the impact of their earlier social experience was revealed. Babies, by the second administration, recovered their eye-contact earlier, and despite being distressed and crying, they looked at the experimenter as soon as she stopped posing the still face. It is plausible to assume that such a change in their behaviour reflects an efficient self-other regulatory process that could be described as increasing resilience with experience, while utilizing the bests of the caretaking environment. This result is expected to make the most significant impact on a wide range of fields as described above. The results are expected to have broader, long-term societal impacts in the area of infant and maternal mental health. Finally, an important part of the impact is expected to be intergenerational. It is known from both human and animal studies that attachment patterns in the infants are likely to be 'repeated' over the next generations, via behavioural and epigenetic factors. Transforming only one generation with informed, sensitive parenting from the neonatal age is expected to have long-term benefit not only in the development and the mental health of the infant, child, adolescent, and adult, but the effects to extend well beyond into the next generation(s). The research is a basic research and basic research takes a longer time than applied research to be translated to measurable societal and economic impact. Part of the impact is expected to be longitudinal, long-term, and intergenerational. Informed, sensitive parenting of the neonate is expected to have a long-term benefit not only in the development and the mental health of the future child, adolescent, and adult, but the effects to extend well beyond into the next generations. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2009 |
| Sector | Education,Healthcare |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | Carnegie Vacation Scholarship |
| Amount | £750 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Carnegie Trust |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2012 |
| End | 08/2012 |
| Description | Small Research Grants |
| Amount | £7,435 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | SG/54514 |
| Organisation | The British Academy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2009 |
| End | 03/2011 |
| Description | Connections Matter. Intersubjectivity and the Social World. International Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Connections Matter. Intersubjectivity and the Social World. International Workshop with international and national prominent researchers in the area of intersubjective development. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited seminar at University of Portsmouth 2009 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | A seminar entitled: The Intersubjective Newborn: from imprinting to relating was presented at the Department of Psychology at University of Portsmouth. The most recent results from the ESRC funded projects were presented. Scientific professional dissemination of the research results and collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |
| Description | Presentation at 'Cross-cultural perspectives in infant development' 2009 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | A workshop was organized by Dr. Suzanne Zeedyk at the School of Psychology at University of Dundee on Cross cultural perspectives on infancy. International experts were invited to share they research. I also presented a talk entitled : Neonatal imitation: Cross-cultural considerations using data from the ESRC funded projects. Research professionals and postgraduate and graduate students were reached. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |
| Description | Public engagement of published paper The Conversation Entry |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Newborn baby development has been vastly underestimated, our study shows. A summary of our recent paper in PLOS-One (Nagy et al., 2017) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://theconversation.com/newborn-baby-development-has-been-vastly-underestimated-our-study-shows-... |
| Description | Public engagement to disseminate the results of our article: "Neonates' responses to repeated exposure to a still face" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | To disseminate our recently published study on Neonates' responses to the repeated still face procedure (Nagy et al., 2017) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/newborn-baby-development-has-been-vastly-underestimated... |
| Description | Public engagement to disseminate the results of our article: "Neonates' responses to repeated exposure to a still face" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | On our paper on Neonates' responses to repeated exposure to a still face (Nagy et al, 2017) - to disseminate the results to the general public |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/newborn-babies-social-still-face-reenga... |
| Description | Radio Tay: The Psychology of the Neonate. Coverage for the International Workshop. 2014 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This interview was to cover the International Workshop on the Psychology of the Newborn Infant that was presented with the support of the ESRC with renown international experts invited. To disseminate the research activity to the public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Second International Workshop on the Psychology of the Neonate |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A group of international experts gathered for a 3-day-long workshop, that was a continuation of the first such workshop that was directly funded by this grant. Associated professionals and members of public also attended the event, participated in the discussions. Further links with other universities have been established via this workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Talk at the Brazelton Institute, Harvard Boston's Children's Hospital, 2014 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Gave an invited talk at the Brazelton Institute at Harvard's Boston Children's Hospital. It was the most stimulating meeting with the leading research institute for the NBAS method. It reached leading professionals, pediatricians and researchers and resulted in stimulating collaborations. The results from the research supported by the ESRC was communicated with professionals working with the newborns and the Brazelton Institute expressed a great interest in the research results. There have been requests for further talks and information exchange. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Talks at the APCP and OT Neonatal Groups Study Day on Infant Mental Health, 2014 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Practitioners working with the newborn infant come for training on the recent advances in research and learn about the abilities of the newborn. It changes views and consequently changes the ways professionals and the public sees the very first relationship between the newborn and the family. Change the views of practitioners working with the newborn infant |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Talks to parents - ongoing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research and patient groups |
| Results and Impact | Parents attended at information sessions on the research. It informed their decisions whether to take part in the study and most expressed their interest in the abilities of the newborn infant. Participation in the experiments and changing views. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2006,2007,2008,2009 |
| Description | Talks to pediatricians |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Regular discussions on the psychology of the newborns with pediatricians in the neonatal ward and the clinic Changing perceptions of the newborn, increased interest to support the projects |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014 |
| Description | Talks to postgraduate MSc students |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A presentation to postgraduate masters students about my recent research results. Stimulate research ideas, disseminate information and to involve students into research as assistants or practicum students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014 |
| Description | Twitter page for the projects on neonates |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A twitter page has been set up recently to share information about the laboratory, results, publications. It is at its early stages yet but with my students we plan to maintain, popularize and develop. To reach professional and public audience, disseminate results and achievements. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/NewbornPsychLab |