Understanding Sensory Perception in Early Development.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding Sensory Processing in Early Development.
IRAS ID
195507
Contact name
Eleanor S Smith
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Lancaster University
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 4 months, 27 days
Research summary
The infant will be presented with paired auditory tones and their neural activity will be recorded while they are asleep. During this period the infant’s status will be recorded (e.g. eyes open or closed, movement etc.). Prior to this the parent will be asked to fill out a schizotypy questionnaire, an adult attachment questionnaire, and two infant attachment questionnaires. Schizotypy describes clusters of subclinical symptoms and personality traits within a healthy population that have the potential to result in a predisposition to schizophrenia (Claridge, 1997). If the parent displays significant schizotypy scores then they will be asked to return to undertake the EEG element of the experiment. \n\nOnce the infant is awake they will undergo a simple visual paradigm, whereby neural activity will be recorded during the viewing of facial expressions, followed by monitoring visual attention whilst viewing facial expressions. Four facial expressions will be presented randomly to the infants. It is expected that an increased Negative-central (Nc) component will be observed in the infants of caregivers with schizotypy. In relation to emotion, typically the Nc is larger for fearful than happy expressions; reflecting greater allocation of attention. Following this phase, the infants will be shown images of one of two women posing a happy or fearful expression. Looking times to each face will be recorded.\n\nFollowing these phases, the caregiver and infant will be given the opportunity for a period of ’free-play’ with a series of appropriate toys, where their activity will be video-recorded. The baseline neural activity of the infant will be measured in relation to the interaction between caregiver and child.
REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NW/0456
Date of REC Opinion
5 Jul 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion