Guest Presenter: Dr. Jessica Bradshaw (Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Carolina)

Talk Title: Mapping Infant Experience: Cascading Predictors of Social Engagement.

Abstract: Sophisticated and fluid social-communication skills emerge in the context of rich social interactions, which begin at birth and are facilitated by a set of requisite hierarchically organized behaviors, collectively called neonatal neurobehavior. Using behavioral and physiological methods, my research characterizes infant responsivity and adaption to the environment during a critical period of neurodevelopment, from birth to 6 months. In this talk, I will present an accumulating body of evidence that coordinated neurological, physiological, and behavioral organization in the early infant period leads to sustained engagement in contingent, active, social interactions with a caregiver. These early successful interactions lay an important foundation for later language development and social learning and have significant implications for understanding mechanisms in the emergence of autism spectrum disorder.