As adults, we can recognize both what an object is and what material it is made of. In order to identify the material category to which an object belongs (e.g., metal, ceramic, fur, etc.), we have to obtain information about the physical properties of the object via multiple sensory modalities (e.g., vision, hearing, touch), and integrate this information in the brain. There is a large amount literature describing the development of infants’ ability to recognize objects (e.g. faces), but far less is known about the development of material recognition.

With this study, we would like to find out how infants process information about material via vision and touch. We will show your child several small metal cylinders, some of which have been covered with faux fur (see picture), and we will allow him/her to either manually explore or look at the cylinders. How your child explores and watches the cylinders will be videotaped. These recordings will allow us to investigate the extent to which babies distinguish different kinds of materials. We are currently inviting 4 to 8 month old infants to participate in this project.

If we feel a touch on one of our hands, it draws our attention to that hand. When we record adults’ brain activity whilst we flash a light on either the hand that they are paying attention to, or the hand that they are not, we see a difference in how the brain processes that flash of light. Paying attention to something causes a much larger brain response than if our attention is elsewhere. Little is known about this process in infants. By recording your child’s brain activity (using a special cap), we are able to focus in on the parts of the brain that process vision and touch and explore how infants process this kind of information.

In our study, we want to find out how young infants’ brain responds to light vibrations (that feel like slight tickles) on their hands which signal the location of a flash of light presented moments later (placed on the back of their hands via scratch mittens). We are currently inviting 7 and 10 month old infants to participate in this project.

As adults, we are able to combine information from vision and audition to discriminate the trajectories of moving objects and to decide towards which ones it is important to direct our attention. However, we do not know if these abilities are present already in the first months of life and how they develop during infancy. With this study, we would like to find out how infants process information about the trajectories of stimuli moving in the environment. To address this, we use EEG to measure the spontaneous brain activity of infants’ brain while they’re attending to motion cues conveyed by either vision or audition alone or by the two senses combined together.

We are currently inviting 5 and 8 month old infants to participate in this project.

For adults, certain types of music are almost always experienced as uplifting or even joyful. Others are sad or conjure up a fearful situation. Research shows that adults from a many cultures recognise these emotions in music and can match them with equivalent facial expressions. This suggests these might be universal aspects of emotion expressed through music. Investigating this with babies helps us discover that. And in fact, previous studies have shown that babies can match happy and sad music and expressions. Our current study extends this to also look at fearful music and expressions. The research will gives us insights into which aspects of music babies understand and will allow us to learn more about musical development in general.

You will be asked to complete some background questions and then your baby will listen to several different musical clips each presented with two faces. To measure your baby’s responses we will film their reaction. You will be with your baby at all times.