Unpredictable environment changes an infant’s attention and brain

The key idea behind all three studies is simple: infants constantly monitor patterns and learn to predict what will happen next. It is the ability to form expectations that lays the foundation for attention, learning, and emotion control. At the same time, laboratory conditions (a quiet room, a single task) differ greatly from a child’s real world — rich, noisy, and constantly changing. Therefore, the team studied children in their natural environment.

In the first study, experts observed 160 infants aged 5 to 12 months. Attention was measured using a tool based on a webcam: it allowed assessing the direction of gaze from ordinary home video recordings.

It turned out that children from families where access to food, housing, and utilities changed unpredictably were more likely to switch their gaze during a visual task — even taking into account the family’s overall economic situation. Researchers suggest that this is not a defect but an adaptive strategy, since in an unstable environment, broader and more frequent attention switching helps to gather information and learn when no single data source is consistently reliable.

In the second study, the team examined how the predictability of a caregiver’s behavior affects the infant’s brain and nervous system.

The scientists coded transitions between auditory, visual, and tactile signals (speech, gaze, touch) during a five‑minute play session with 104 three‑month‑old children. In infants whose caregivers switched between actions less predictably, researchers found reduced activity in the frontal lobes of the brain (a marker associated with attention and information processing), as well as lower heart rate variability, which reflects the flexibility of the nervous system’s response.

The authors compare this to the difference between a familiar lullaby and a jazz improvisation: both can be rich and interesting, but only a predictable sequence gives a child a clear sense of what will come next; it is this ability to predict that is critically important for early learning. It is important that the differences became apparent as early as 3 months, before the child learns to sit up or hold a toy.

The third study was devoted to finding a biological mechanism that could mitigate the impact of maternal stress on the regulation of the child’s behavior.

The study involved 81 mother–infant pairs. It was found that the neurosteroid allopregnanolone, which is present in breast milk, weakens the link between postpartum psychological stress and maternal depression and the child’s ability to regulate emotions and behavior. Allopregnanolone is known for its role in mood regulation; its synthetic form is used to treat postpartum depression.

The results obtained so far are only preliminary data on one of the possible biological pathways. They should not be perceived as pressure on mothers to encourage breastfeeding. The main social idea here is different: a mother’s mental health is important in its own right, and postpartum depression and anxiety are common but treatable conditions.

The most important conclusion of the entire series of studies is that it is necessary to distinguish between “lack of resources” and “unpredictability.” A family with lower income but a stable daily routine can provide a child with an important component of development — predictability, which may be lacking in a more affluent but chaotic family. According to the authors of all the studies, supporting stability (reliable housing, predictable care, sufficient time off) is a direct investment in a child’s development.