Effects of children's early experience with varying parental styles on the neurodevelopmental correlates of executive function

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development awarded Smith College $527,648 on March 18, 2026, under the Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.865) to investigate how parental engagement styles shape the neurodevelopmental basis of executive function in children through simultaneous brain recording of caregiver-child dyads.

The research employs functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning—a non-invasive neuroimaging technique that measures brain synchrony across caregiver-child pairs during naturalistic problem-solving tasks. The study focuses on neural activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction while rating in-the-moment parenting behavior to determine how optimal parental engagement facilitates cognitive development. The work addresses how under-engaged or intrusive caregiving can impede children's learning and attention processes.

Performance occurs in Northampton, Massachusetts, with a period of performance through February 28, 2029. Smith College, a private nonprofit research university, serves as the recipient organization. The award is classified as a Project Grant, the standard assistance type for investigator-initiated NICHD research.

Abstract

Caregiver-child interactions shape children's cognitive outcomes such that caregivers can guide attention and facilitate learning opportunities. These interactions provide children with rich, naturalistic experiences that engage complex cognitive functions and lay the groundwork for the development of mature executive functions (EF). Although most caregivers seek to engage children optimally, they can impede this developmental process by being under-engaged or intrusive. When caregivers are under-engaged, children do not have the proper support to know what to attend to in a complex environment. When parents are intrusive, they inadvertently disrupt the child's attention and direct learning to information that the parent deems important, but the child may find uninteresting or irrelevant. This disruption can impede the learning process unfolding based on the child's intrinsic attention. Understanding the moment-to-moment neural basis of these processes is critical to uncover the role that caregivers play in the development of EF. Simultaneous brain recording, called hyperscanning, is a burgeoning method that measures brain synchrony across caregiver-child dyads when engaged in a shared task. The present study leverages cutting edge hyperscanning techniques, coupled with ratings of in-the-moment parenting behavior to uncover how parents best engage children during a novel shared problem-solving task. We will use functional near infrared spectroscopy (fnirs) a non-invasive neuroimaging technique that is mobile, less susceptible to motion artifacts, has good spatial resolution, and works well for capturing neural synchrony in the lateral prefrontal cortex (lpfc), a critical brain region for problem-solving and temporoparietal junction (TPJ) a key region for social processing. Fnirs will be conducted during naturalistic parent-child interactions in a sample of children in the summer before they make the important transition to kindergarten (57-72 months), which also captures a period of rapid EF development. We will measure EF at T1 and additionally include a T2 follow up ~6 months into the school year to measure EF and academic outcomes over time. We will also measure autonomic nervous system response (using the interbeat interval) in parent and child, to disentangle brain synchrony from other sources of physiological synchrony. Aim 1 seeks to investigate how natural variation in parental scaffolding and intrusiveness are associated with lpfc and TPJ neural synchrony during a novel problem-solving task with varying levels of difficulty in preschoolers interacting with their primary caregiver. Aim 2 will investigate the role of parenting behavior in development of EF as children make the transition to school. Aim 3 will explore whether lpfc and TPJ neural synchrony during problem-solving is a mechanism linking parenting behavior with the development of EF. This research is critical to understanding how parent-child interactions influence the development of EF in young children. This work has the potential to inform interventions to help children reach their full cognitive potential.