Analyze later behavioral problems at the baby's view

Psychology: View of babies can point to later behavioral problems

Only recently have German pediatricians reported on their concern for psychologically conspicuous children. Psychologists have now found out that it is possible to test after birth whether a newborn baby will eventually become impulsive, aggressive or hyperactive. The risk is calculated from the baby's perspective.

The world is initially blurred for newborns
Psychologists show that it is possible to test directly after birth whether a newborn will later become impulsive, aggressive or hyperactive. As "world" reports, they calculate the risk from the child's perspective. Although newborns can make outlines and sources of light, they still have a hard time distinguishing colors. Moving your eyes in sync and fixing something is also not easy for the little ones. At first, they only do this at a short distance. The most important thing for the child, anyway, is to recognize the faces and emotions of certain people anyway. For a long time, scientists have been studying how babies learn how to control their gaze, how they fix faces and how long they spend dealing with them.

"Short-lookers" with a quicker comprehension
Researchers divide babies into so-called "long-lookers" (LL) and "short-lookers" (SL) - children who fix a new stimulus for a long or rather short time. According to "welt.de" examinations could show that babies, who fix a new stimulus attentively, but only briefly, have a quicker comprehension. Therefore, years later they can better control their attention, control themselves better and have a better memory. Now scientists have investigated whether the gaze behavior of babies is related to their later intelligence quotient. It showed that the IQ of 18-year-olds was higher when they were "short-lookers" in infancy.

Recognize risks from the view of babies
Scientists working with Kostas Papageorgiou at the London Metropolitan University have investigated whether babies' eyes can also betray the risk of having problems managing their own behavior - impulsive, aggressive or hyperactive. However, researchers did not use the sheer amount of time that infants turned to a stimulus, but captured it in a value called fixation duration. In a total of 180 one- to four-day-old neonates, this fixation length was examined by showing them faces on a screen. Several years later, the scientists presented to the parents of 80 of these babies several questionnaires that asked about the behavior of meanwhile seven-year-old children.

Asked about later conspicuous behaviors
Researchers were interested in how well the children were able to control their emotions, how impulsive they were, or whether they showed conspicuous behaviors, such as hyperactivity, peer problems, or attention deficits. In the journal Scientific Reports, psychologists now report that newborns who were able to retain their fixation longer were less impulsive, aggressive, or hyperactive at primary school age than children with short fixation lengths. "We have shown for the first time that there is a significant correlation between the way babies look at pictures and their later temperament and behavior in childhood, such as hyperactivity," the authors said.

Biological factors cause differences
According to the researchers, the large differences can not be significantly influenced by the environment since the infants were examined immediately after birth. Biological factors are probably the reason for the observed differences, such as genetic differences or influences on the baby in the womb. "There are many factors that influence childhood behavioral difficulties. But our findings suggest that part of what influences later behavior is already present at birth, "explained Papageorgiou. "In the future, these observations can help identify children at high risk for attention deficits, such as ADHD, and help develop interventions that improve attention performance."

Genetic preloads do not necessarily have to come to fruition
As developmental psychologist Birgit Elsner of the University of Potsdam explained, studies have already shown that "difficult babies" - those who have problems developing a rhythm for eating or sleeping, for example, who often cry or are restless - also in the child - and adolescents often show abnormal behavior or develop learning difficulties. While the stability of such differences over several years of life suggests a biological cause, such studies are all about risk assessment. Not all babies who watch stimuli for a long time and achieve only short fixation times, therefore, become behavior-prone. Numerous studies show that there are different factors that influence the development of the child. For example, a recent Brazilian study came to the conclusion that breastfeeding makes people intelligent and well-to-do. Above all, the researchers made long-chain saturated fatty acids, which are important for the development of the brain, responsible for the positive effects of breast milk on the intelligence. Later influences, in particular the relationship between the baby and its parents, play an important role in determining whether or not genetic bias actually takes effect. (Ad)