Innate intersubjectivity: Newborns' sensitivity to communication disturbance.

Abstract

In most of our social life we communicate and relate to others. Successful interpersonal relating is crucial to physical and mental well-being and growth. This study, using the still-face paradigm, demonstrates that even human neonates (n = 90, 3-96 hr after birth) adjust their behavior according to the social responsiveness of their interaction partner. If the interaction partner becomes unresponsive, newborns will also change their behavior, decrease eye contact, and display signs of distress. Even after the interaction partner resumes responsiveness, the effects of the communication disturbance persist as a spillover. These results indicate that even newborn infants sensitively monitor the behavior of others and react as if they had innate expectations regarding rules of interpersonal interaction.

Mothers' interaction with their disabled infants: two case studies

“…Mothers in this study did not imitate their infants' behaviours. Imitation seems to be an important part of interaction (Aitken, 2008;Beebe, 1998;Fiamenghi, 2007;Kugiumutzakis, 1993;Nagy, 2008). It would be important to investigate parents' imitation of their infants' behaviour in the context of other disabilities, apart from autism, to increase the comprehension of the imitative process in human development.…”

“…There is an essential bidirectionality in those relations -not only do infants receive information from mothers, but they also provide information for them and offer ways to achieve synchronically attuned interaction (Fiamenghi, 1999). An innate ability to share subjective states has been confirmed in studies of neonates' stimulation of perinatal care (Brazelton, 1979;Brazelton & Nugent, 1995) and of neonatal imitation (Kugiumutzakis, 1993;Meltzoff, 1985;Meltzoff & Moore, 1989;Nagy, 2008;Nagy & Molnár, 1994).…”

Awareness of Infants: What Do They, and We, Seek?

“…Tronick had found the same disruptive effect of a still face on the infant's emotional engagement in protoconversation (Brazelton, et al, 1975;Tronick et al, 1978), which led to his contributions on the emotional regulations of interactions with infants, the phases of maternal emotional support in interaction, and the consequences of failure of support for the infant's emotional state (Cohn and Tronick, 1983;Tronick et al, 1980;Tronick, 1989;Weinberg andTronick, 1994, 1996). Nagy (2008Nagy ( , 2011 has shown that a newborn infant, less than two days old, is sensitive to the offense of the still face procedure.…”

“…On theoretical grounds, neonatal imitation has been pronounced impossible in the 4-week newborn period (Nagy, 2011). Experiments by Maratos (1973Maratos ( , 1982 that clearly demonstrated neonatal imitation were received with astonishment by her doctoral supervisor Jean Piaget.…”

Pre-Reflective Ethical Know-How

“…Hubert Dreyfus has shown how various 12 See, e.g., Trevarthen (1979Trevarthen ( , 1993Trevarthen ( , 2002; Reddy (2008), 73ff. ;Nagy (2008). 13 This does not mean that non-human animals do not possess certain emotions and even a capacity for empathy as recent work in cognitive ethology demonstrates.…”