{"title":"Prior Nighttime Sleep and Face Recognition in 6- and 12-Month-Old Infants","authors":"Gulizar Tel, Sabine Seehagen","doi":"10.1002/dev.70167","DOIUrl":"10.1002/dev.70167","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The role of prior sleep, particularly nighttime sleep, in memory encoding is poorly understood in infants. The present study, therefore, focused on possible associations between nighttime sleep and memory encoding in the first year of life. First, the sleeping behavior of 6-month-old (<i>n</i> = 32) and 12-month-old (<i>n</i> = 35) infants was assessed for one night using actigraphy and sleep diaries. The following day, infants participated in a visual recognition memory task in the laboratory, which included photographs of female adults showing happy, angry, and neutral facial expressions. Six-month-old infants did not recognize any of the faces, whereas 12-month-old infants recognized the emotional, but not neutral faces, as indicated by novelty preference scores. Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses revealed that sleep efficiency and light sleep predicted novelty preference scores for angry and neutral faces in 6-month-olds, whereas light sleep and co-sleeping predicted novelty preference scores for angry faces in 12-month-olds. These results suggest that specific sleep parameters have distinct and age-specific significance for subsequent memory encoding.</p>","PeriodicalId":11086,"journal":{"name":"Developmental psychobiology","volume":"68 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/dev.70167","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148053268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Screen Time and the Developing Brain: A Systematic Review of Neuroimaging Findings in Children Aged 0–12 Years","authors":"Emma Nimmo, Minh Chau","doi":"10.1002/dev.70170","DOIUrl":"10.1002/dev.70170","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This scoping review examined neuroimaging evidence relating screen-based technology use to brain development in children aged 0–12 years. Nine studies were included. Most reported associations between higher screen exposure and less favorable neurodevelopmental outcomes, including reduced cortical thickness, lower gray and white matter integrity, decreased cerebellar volume, and altered connectivity in networks involved in language, attention, executive functioning, and emotional regulation. These neural differences were associated with poorer literacy and language skills, increased anxiety and depressive symptoms, and greater behavioral difficulties. Some evidence suggested positive effects from structured and interactive digital activities, particularly video gaming, which was linked to improvements in working memory, spatial awareness, fine motor performance, and increased regional brain volume. Findings indicate that the impact of screen-based technology is complex and may depend on the type, duration, and context of use. While excessive or unregulated screen exposure appears associated with less favorable developmental outcomes, targeted digital engagement may support specific cognitive functions. Further longitudinal and experimental research is needed to clarify causal pathways and guide evidence-based recommendations for children's digital media use.</p>","PeriodicalId":11086,"journal":{"name":"Developmental psychobiology","volume":"68 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/dev.70170","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148053291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Simone Poulin, David H. McFarland, Stefano Rezzonico, Natacha Trudeau
{"title":"Examining the Relationship Between Early Feeding Difficulties and Language Development: A Longitudinal Study","authors":"Simone Poulin, David H. McFarland, Stefano Rezzonico, Natacha Trudeau","doi":"10.1002/dev.70163","DOIUrl":"10.1002/dev.70163","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Increasing evidence suggests that interactive feeding is an important variable in language development, with early disruptions in feeding potentially having long-term consequences. This longitudinal experiment characterized early patterns of feeding difficulties and language development in full-term, typically-developing infants across the developmental milestones of 8, 12, 18, 24, and 54 months. Parent-directed assessments were used to assess feeding difficulties and language abilities between 8 and 24 months and a clinical language assessment was administered at 54 months. Results revealed that certain feeding difficulties, such as poor saliva control at 18 months, correlate negatively with expressive vocabulary size and may signal co-occurring and later occurring less developmentally advanced language skills at 18 and 24 months. Others, such as food selectivity, are characteristic of children with less developmentally advanced language skills at 24 months. Together, these findings suggest that feeding difficulties may reduce opportunities for language stimulation and/or reflect underlying oral-motor developmental vulnerabilities that also affect language development.</p>","PeriodicalId":11086,"journal":{"name":"Developmental psychobiology","volume":"68 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13176806/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147940277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Joshua L. Schneider, Samantha N. Plate, Jenna M. Trout, Whitney G. Cole, Karen E. Adolph, Jana M. Iverson
{"title":"Step by Step, Day by Day: The First 3 Months of Infant Walking at Home","authors":"Joshua L. Schneider, Samantha N. Plate, Jenna M. Trout, Whitney G. Cole, Karen E. Adolph, Jana M. Iverson","doi":"10.1002/dev.70162","DOIUrl":"10.1002/dev.70162","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Infants make learning look easy. They acquire a range of complex foundational skills—walking, talking, reaching, and manipulating objects—rapidly and efficiently. Nonetheless, learning new skills requires both time and practice. Although time and practice are related, the passage of time is not equivalent to the accumulation of practice. Here, we tested the relative contributions of elapsed time and accumulated practice to skill development by focusing on infant walking, a critical behavior for everyday activity. We followed 28 infants (18 boys, 10 girls, <i>M</i> walk onset age = 12.21 months, <i>SD</i> = 1.82) across the first 3 months of walking at home—the period when improvements in walking skill are most rapid and dramatic and the place where development really occurs. We calculated walking age (i.e., elapsed time since walk onset) from prospective tracking of walk onset, quantified walking practice (e.g., accumulated steps per hour) from observations of everyday activity, and measured walking skill (e.g., step length) with a pressure-sensitive gait mat. Longitudinal improvements in walking skill were consistent for all infants, and linear growth for the group reflected individual trajectories. In contrast, developmental change in walking practice was inconsistent for most infants: Spontaneous walking increased and decreased across monthly comparisons. Although walking age was the strongest predictor of improvements in walking skill, everyday practice explained unique variance beyond the effects of elapsed time. Likely, accumulating quantities of everyday walking (the natural input for learning) facilitates skill improvements by providing infants with critical experiences with perceptually guided locomotion in varied environments.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":11086,"journal":{"name":"Developmental psychobiology","volume":"68 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147940260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do Human Fetuses Form Long-Lasting Chemosensory Memories? Longitudinal Follow-Up From Fetus to Young Child of Facial Responses to Flavor/Odor Stimuli","authors":"Nadja Reissland, Jochen Einbeck, Deimantė Baguckaitė, Beyza Ustun-Elayan, Benoist Schaal, Jacqueline Blissett","doi":"10.1002/dev.70165","DOIUrl":"10.1002/dev.70165","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Prenatal flavor exposure is known to provide the foundation for later flavor or odor preferences in humans, yet the persistence of fetal flavor/odor memories into early childhood remains unclear. In previous studies, fetuses at 32- and 36 weeks gestation were shown to display discriminative facial reactions following a single-dose flavor stimulation (bitter kale vs. non-bitter carrot), and repeated exposure to these flavors from 36 weeks until birth was associated with responses to flavor-specific odors in the first postnatal month. The current longitudinal follow-up tested whether the prenatal exposure to two specific flavors results in flavor-specific odor reactions at 3 years of age. Children (<i>n =</i> 12) who had participated in the fetal and neonatal phases of the study were tested at 3 years of age using controlled olfactory presentations of the same flavors. Results showed that the 3-year-olds exhibited a significantly reduced rate of negative facial expressions in response to the odor they had been repeatedly exposed to in utero (<i>p</i> < 0.001), indicating continuity from prenatal sensory experience to early childhood behavioral responses. Thus, flavor exposure in late gestation can result in long-lasting flavor/odor memory, confirming that the prenatal chemosensory environment can shape behavioral tendencies years after birth.</p>","PeriodicalId":11086,"journal":{"name":"Developmental psychobiology","volume":"68 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13167224/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147927663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}