This dataset comprises EEG neural indices and looking data recorded concurrently from N=42 infants and their mothers during one of two social conditions, Joint Play and Solo Play. Exact descriptions of the participants and experimental procedures are given in the attached manuscript, Wass et al. (in press, Developmental Science). Learning is an inherently social activity, but previous research typically only considers the learner in isolation, or when interacting with an inanimate "teacher". Our project aims to address this gap by developing new techniques to investigate how mothers’ and infants' brains co-operate during learning. Our hypothesis, based on previous research from our lab and others, is that the electrical patterns of activity in mothers' and infants' brains become synchronised when both are jointly focussed on the same object, and this inter-personal (brain-to-brain, 'b2b') synchronisation boosts infants' learning and memory for new information. This has never been addressed before because nobody has measured the electrical activity in mothers’ and infants' brains at the same time. In the past, people have only looked either at mother’s brains or at their child’s.

Dual electroencephalography (EEG) and behavioural (visual) looking patterns