Infant-directed singing improves infants’ social visual behavior according to new research PNASNews VUMChealth Infancy Infant Singing SocialVisualBehaviour
By Bhavana KunkalikarNov 8 2022Reviewed by Aimee Molineux In a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, researchers assessed the impact of infant-directed singing on the social visual behavior of the infant.
About the study In the present study, researchers evaluated whether infant-directed singing's rhythm impacted infants' visual attention. Eye areas were bitmapped in each video frame corresponding to each singing caregiver. To determine whether average levels of eye-looking were adjusted in time to the caregiver's singing rhythmic structure, eye-tracking technology was employed to measure infants' visual scanning. Using phase plots and Lissajous curves, the team assessed the timing of synchronized responses of the infant and the caregiver.