Elucidation of the role of interoception in the social cognitive development of infants and development of evaluation and support methods

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K14392
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 10020:Educational psychology-related
• Research Institution: Musashino University
• Principal Investigator: Imafuku Masahiro 武蔵野大学, 教育学部, 准教授 (80786616)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 内受容感覚 / 社会的認知 / 心拍 / 乳児 / 養育者

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study was to clarify the role of interoception in the social cognitive development of mothers and children by measuring individual differences in interoception in infants and mothers and examining its relationship to social behavior in mother-infant interaction situations. A new behavioral index was developed to evaluate interoception in both infants and adults using the same index. Using this behavioral index, we confirmed that it is possible to evaluate individual differences in interoception between infants and mothers. The results of this study showed that infants with higher sensitivity to interoception smiled more and engaged in more social behaviors (e.g., eye contact) during interactions with their mothers. This suggests that interoception is closely related to social cognition even in infancy.

Free Research Field

発達科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

内受容感覚は，人間の感情や精神疾患との関連が指摘されており，その発達的基盤や役割について世界中の研究者から注目をあびている。先行研究では，青年・成人において内受容感覚と社会的認知の関連性を検討し，内受容感覚が高い者は，表情伝染が起こりやすく，アイコンタクトによる表情模倣の促進効果が大きいことがわかったが（Imafuku et al., 2020 Scientific Reports），乳児の内受容感覚の個人差が社会的認知発達と関連しているかは未解明であった。本研究成果は，内受容感覚の個人差が発達初期から存在し，人間が他者と関わるのに必要な社会的認知発達と関連することを世界で初めて明らかにした。