Early Social Communication in Primates
Our developmental research investigates the earliest foundations of social communication. Newborn and infant macaques provide a powerful comparative model for examining how face-to-face exchanges, imitation, gaze and caregiver responsiveness shape the developing social brain.
We study infants’ spontaneous communicative capacities alongside mothers’ reciprocal behaviour, with particular emphasis on neonatal facial imitation, lip-smacking exchanges and early perception–action coupling. Individual differences in neonatal social responsiveness predict later motor and socio-cognitive development, while early caregiver interactions rapidly influence sensorimotor brain systems.
Methods
- longitudinal infant macaque studies; face-to-face mother–infant observation; neonatal imitation and lip-smacking paradigms; EEG measurement of sensorimotor responses; developmental behavioural assessment
Papers
| Reference | Topics | URL |
|---|---|---|
| Ferrari, P. F., Visalberghi, E., Paukner, A., Fogassi, L., Ruggiero, A., & Suomi, S. J. (2006). Neonatal imitation in rhesus macaques. PLoS Biology, 4, e302. | Neonatal imitation in macaques. | DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0040302 |
| Ferrari, P. F., Paukner, A., Ionica, C., & Suomi, S. J. (2009). Reciprocal face-to-face communication between rhesus macaque mothers and their newborn infants. Current Biology, 19, 1768–1772. | Reciprocal early mother–infant communication. | |
| Ferrari, P. F., Vanderwert, R. E., Paukner, A., Bower, S., Suomi, S. J., & Fox, N. A. (2012). Distinct EEG amplitude suppression to facial gestures as evidence for a mirror mechanism in newborn monkeys. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24, 1165–1172. | Neonatal EEG evidence for a mirror mechanism. | |
| Sclafani, V., De Pascalis, L., Bozicevic, L., Sepe, A., Ferrari, P. F., & Murray, L. (2023). Similarities and differences in the functional architecture of mother-infant communication in rhesus macaque and British mother-infant dyads. Scientific Reports. | Comparative mother–infant communication. | DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-39623-3 |