Background and Aims

The first three years of life are, particularly, crucial for children’s long-term development, health and well-being as well as for the emergence of neurodiversity like Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The primary aim of SAPIENS is to identify the mechanisms that act during early childhood to shape individual long-term social development for improving the health and well-being of EU citizens and have far-reaching consequences for social and educational policy.

SAPIENS' new approach has put social interaction at the heart of brain development focusing on studying the interface between neurocognitive function and dynamic interpersonal interactions over development. The project has also brought several key innovations while studying infants and young children. The use of novel tools for studying the real-time dynamics of social interactions across brain, cognition and behaviour in natural settings, advanced statistical models and longitudinal designs to account for the complexity of interacting systems over time, computational modelling and causally-sensitive intervention designs to unpick the relative contributions of children and their parents to the emerging dynamics of social interaction.

Aims

Aim 1

SAPIENS has built a long-standing European network in developmental science to advance the understanding of early social brain development. Collaboration between leading European institutions has brought together complementary expertise in different areas of developmental science and methodologies (neurocognitive development, neuroimaging, real-time interaction measurement, developmental psychopathology, clinical translation, modelling and trajectory prediction).

Aim 2

SAPIENS has trained a new generation of 15 Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs) by using multidisciplinary and multi-methodological approaches to complete their research projects and presentation of these projects at the Final Conference held at Ghent University in September 2022.

Aim 3

SAPIENS has progressed close collaborations between industry and academia. The project has brought together a wide range of technology partners such as Pattern Vision, VicarVision, iMotions to accelerate innovations in brain and behaviour measurement, Phier to apply novel computational modelling tools to large longitudinal datasets analysis, BabyBrains to communicate and engage in research translation delivering evidence-based parent training in Europe (UK, Italy and France) and beyond (South Africa, the Gambia and India), clinical applications, parent education and the Comenius Foundation for Child Development, an NGO that works to improve childcare services and early education for public policy.

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