Infant Development Project (IDP) is a longitudinal and multimethod study that aims to understand how infants’ earliest interactions with their parents help support behavioral and brain development within the first year of life. Mother-infant dyads visited the laboratory at 3, 6, and 9 months to complete a series of behavioral tasks including an 8-minute play session and a 6-minute stillface session to assess their attachment and general behavioral development. They also returned when infants turned 12-month-old to complete Strange Situation and puzzle tasks. At all visits, infants also completed multiple tasks to assess their social and cognitive development. In addition, infants were invited to participate the fMRI scan session at 3 and 12 months of age to assess their brain development at the beginning and end of the first year. Through potential findings of this study, the PIs will be able to probe how integration of neural networks over the first year of life.

Collaborators:
Brad Sutton (Bioengineering, UIUC)
Ryan Larsen (Beckman Institute, UIUC)
Eva Telzer (UNC at Chapel Hill)
Tae-Ho Lee (Virginia Tech)

Graduate Students:
Xiaomei Li
Yannan Hu
Ethan McCormick

Funded by:
National Institute of Mental Health
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture