An itsy bitsy audience: Live performance facilitates infants’ attention and heart rate synchronization

Abstract

Among our most powerful experiences are those we share with others. Researchers have increasingly sought to investigate responses to socially potent stimuli, such as music, in contexts that are more naturalistic than a traditional psychology lab. Here, we investigated behavioral and physiological responses to either a live concert or a perceptually-matched recorded playback on a naïve audience: infants. Two audiences of 6- to 14-month-old infants (N = ~30 each, total N = 61) watched a musical performance live in a specialized research facility/concert hall (livelab.mcmaster.ca). Two additional infant audiences (N = ~30 each, total N = 59) watched a recorded playback of the same performance in the same auditorium. A third group (N = 27) watched the recorded playback individually on their family’s device at home. In the two audience conditions, infants were more engaged in the live performance than the recorded playback, indicated by more overall attention and more sustained attention, and physiological synchrony. Infants at home watched at levels comparable to infants in the live performance but their attention was sustained for shorter bouts. Findings suggest that performer-audience interactions and social context play an important role in facilitating attention and coordinating emotional responses to musical performances early in life.

Early social communication through music: State of the art and future perspectives

“…In a live music concert with caregiver-infant dyads as the audience, 6to 18-month-old infants' attention, affect, and movement were modulated by the song style, their caregivers' attention and level of engagement, and the infants' own musical experience (Kragness et al, 2023). In another concert of ID performances, infant audience members' attention and heart rates synchronized more with those of other infants during live compared to prerecorded shows (Kragness, Eitel, et al, 2022). These studies suggest that live music experience, whether between a dyad or in a larger social group, enhances coordination of arousal and attention.…”

“…Piazza and colleagues specifically showed that when children successfully learned new words together, they also showed similar brain activities. A similar approach could therefore be utilized to assess how large groups of children process music collectively during live performances (Kragness, Eitel, et al, 2022;Kragness et al, 2023). Studying additional multiperson settings, such as with siblings or in a daycare context, might also deepen our understanding of how infants process music in a social context.…”

Early social communication through music: State of the art and future perspectives

“…In a live music concert involving singing and musical instruments with caregiver-infant dyads as the audience, 6-to 18-month-old infants' attention, affect, and movement were modulated by the song style, their caregivers' attention and level of engagement, and the infants' own musical experience (Kragness et al, 2023). In another concert of ID performances, infant audience members' attention and heart rates synchronized more with those of other infants during live compared to prerecorded shows (Kragness, Eitel, et al, 2022). These studies suggest that live music experience, whether between a dyad or in a larger social group, enhances coordination of arousal and attention.…”

“…A growing body of research has started examining this issue from a bio-behavioral perspective with a focus on how infants perceive and respond to music made for them (Cirelli, Jurewicz, et al, 2020b;Kragness, Eitel, et al, 2022;Lense, Shultz, et al, 2022;Markova et al, 2020;T. Nguyen et al, 2023).…”

“…Piazza and colleagues specifically showed that when children successfully learned new words together, they also showed similar brain activities. A similar approach could therefore be utilized to assess how large groups of children process music collectively during live performances (Kragness, Eitel, et al, 2022;Kragness et al, 2023). Studying additional multi-person settings, such as with siblings or in a daycare context, might also deepen our understanding of how infants process music in a social context.…”