iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Those are just SOME of the reasons why sharing books is GREAT for young children’s brain development! Full report here: www.booktrust.org.uk/about-us/rea... Video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOry...

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Structure: The frontal cortex, which helps join separate experiences into coherent goals, is slow to develop. Stories have structure. Regular story-telling may help to learn to understand about predictability and structure helping to learn to set goals. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Clarity: Hyper-articulating speech sounds by exaggerating mouth movements helps young children to hear the differences between words. It also helps if your child can see your mouth while you’re talking. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.01004.x

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Rhythm: giving language input with a strong rhythmic structure can help to nudge a child’s brain rhythms, which naturally are more irregular, into more stable adult-like rhythms, which helps language processing. doi.org/10.1016/j.dc...

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Responsiveness: because children’s brains are messy, sometimes they’re ready for new information and sometimes they’re not. Waiting for them to initiate –by asking, looking or pointing – helps you to be sure that new info arrives when their brain is ready. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Repetition: young brains are messy and overconnected. When they want to read the same book over and over, or look at the same picture – go with it! Doing things repeatedly helps to ‘practice’ understanding something, which builds stronger brain networks. t.co/wssvev7XXG

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

To support the launch of ‪@booktrust.org.uk‬'s Reading Rights report today with ‪@frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social‬, here are six neuroscience-informed tips for sharing books with young children 👇

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Just out 📣 in @JEnvPsych- 'Differential Effects Of An Urban Outdoor Environment On 4-5 Year Old Children’s Attention In School' - with @GemmaGoldenberg, Molly Atkinson, @jan_dubiel www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

When it comes to early years screen media – how fast-paced is TOO fast? Just heard 🎉🍾🍾 we got funding from @LeverhulmeTrust for new project measuring how young brains respond to screen media in real time. With @JuliaDavidson13, Rachel Barr, @jessen_sarah, @MarriottIra, PLabendzki

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Theta activity, often treated as a marker of engagement/attention (in our previous papers and tonnes others!) now suddenly looks like sum of transient fixation-related P1/N170 components. Eg data sections where no FRPs present show strongly attenuated oscillatory activity. 6/8

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

They are slower, which may drive developmental differences in frequency domain observed in previous resting state studies. FRPs also differentiate between social/non-social contexts, which may drive previously observed differences in frequency domain activity between contexts 5/8

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

These fixation-related potentials (FRPs) look very different in children compared with adults – more specific to particular frequency bands, etc – but a lot like evoked response potentials seen in passive, event-related paradigms. 4/8

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Using co-registered eyetracking and EEG in 24-month-olds and adults we look at transient increases in cortical excitability time-locked to eye movements (~3/sec). We can clearly separate eye movement-related artifact and genuine neural activity linked to offset of saccade 3/8

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Are brain states in children passively generated in response to things that happen in our environment? Or are they actively created through micro-level movements? Big questions in latest pre-preprint from @MarriottIra that re-examines developmental EEG findings 👇 1/8

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

New preprint - 'From salience to semantics: multilevel hierarchical contingencies organise parent-infant joint attention' by Pierre Labendzki, @martaperapoch with Louise Goupil, @EmilyDevNeuro and team from @UEL_BabyDevLab DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.26638.47686

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

The neuroscience of 'I want NORMAL chicken!!' Article for Nursery World on why toddlers love predictability. www.nurseryworld.co.uk/content/feat...

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

📣Just out in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews! @ELSneuroscience - 'Foraging and inertia: Understanding the developmental dynamics of overt visual attention' with @martaperapoch, Tom Northrop, @MarriottIra, @EmilyAPhillips www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Home is where the start is: a world of possibilities Free @EYAlliance sessions for parents of 0-5s Thurs 13 Feb to Sat 15 Feb www.familycorner.co.uk/home-where-s...

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Sam Wass @profsamwass.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Just out 🎉 at @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social - 'Finding order in chaos: influences of environmental complexity and predictability on development' with Katie Lancaster www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

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