Infants are intensely emotional. They move into and out of states of desperate crying and joyous exuberance. Much of infant life - including their emotions - take place during close interactions with their caregivers. Our research group examines emotional communication in typically developing and at-risk infants. We are currently studying whether infants who have an older sibling with autism are at-risk for developing deficits in emotional communication. This research is part of a project funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Alliance for Autism Research (Autism Speaks). The project examines whether infants with autistic siblings have difficulties with positive emotion communication - and what this tells us about the subsequent development of those infants.

More formal oveview of research on early development. Less formal description follows.

The Development of Emotional Communication

What do infants facial expressions tell us about their feelings?  Our observational and rating studies indicate that all smiles are emotionally positive but some smiles are more positive than others. Infant smiles that involve constriction of the eyes and opening of the mouth are especially likely when infants are gazing at their smiling mothers. This association grows stronger with age, suggesting we are observing the development of joy.

Current work in this area involves a collaboration with Jeffrey Cohn, Ph.D. funded by the National Science Foundation in which we use computer vision software to measure facial movements during smiles. These measurements are used to predict the positive emotion perceived in the smiles. We are now working on several studies in which we ask whether non-expert observers (undergrads) produce reliable, continuous measurement of emotion and other constructs.

Although positive and negative expressions have many differences, they may involve a fundamental similarity. Smiles with eye constriction and mouth opening are perceived as more positive than other smiles by mothers and by naïve observers. Infant cry-faces that involve eye constriction and mouth opening are perceived as more negative than other cry-faces. We are now looking at infant vocalizations and heart rate to test whether the emotional intensity of both positive and negative expressions is indexed by similar facial movements.

How do infants communicate before speech? Infant facial expressions are central to their nonverbal communication. Infants sequence facial expressions with gazes at the parent. In what may be an early example of emotion regulation, infants gaze at mother, smile, and gaze away before ending their smiles. Infants also sequence facial expressions with vocalizations. They embed vocalizations within facial expressions (paper). They smile and then vocalize - perhaps to highlight the smile's message - before ending the vocalization and then ending the smile. Pioneering bootstrapping methods developed by Alan Cobo-Lewis allow us to figure out how such interactive behaviors are sequenced in time. We are now examining how infants approaching one year of age intentionally communicate positive emotion by gazing at an object, smiling, and then sharing their smile with an examiner or with mother.

Pathways to secure infant attachment. Secure attachment means that when infants are upset, they are confident they will be comforted. In middle-class dyads, positive social play may be a pathway to secure attachment. However, among families with fewer socioeconomic resources and different values concerning child development, social play may be a less salient and less valued way of interacting. In these dyads, there may be other pathways to secure attachment. We are currently investigating pathways to secure attachment among infants with an older autistic sibling. 

We have also studied these processes among drug-exposed infants in the Maternal Lifestyle Study (MLS).  MLS is a longitudinal, multi-site study of an ethnically diverse sample of infants prenatally exposed to cocaine. In MLS, we are exploring subtle differences in the feeding interactions and face-to-face interactions of drug exposed infants and their mothers. We are also studying the cognitive development of these at-risk infants using standardized developmental measures. 

For information about participating in our research and applying to grad school, please contact dmessinger@miami.edu.