Thefirstideasummary 1

The First Idea How Symbols Language and Intelligence Evolved from Our Primate Ancestors to Modern Humans

By Stanley Greenspan, MD Stuart Shanker, D.Phil

Core theory of The First Idea  A subtle type of emotional signaling between parent and infant is at the center of a series of emotional transformations needed for humans to develop symbolic thinking  over millions of years, our primate and early human ancestors passed on cultural practices that guided early emotional interactions between infants and caregivers • These highly specific emotional signaling patterns are necessary for the formation of symbols, language, and intelligence

Core Theory, Cont’d • We have identified six stages of emotional transformation that lead to symbol formation and ten further stages that account for higher levels of creative and reflective thinking • When these vital emotional transformations do not occur developmental problems arise, including autism and severe language disorders • Conversely, the more developed these early emotional transformations, the higher the level of symbolic thinking, language and social skills

Core Theory, cont’d • We refer to these stages of emotional transformation as functional/emotional stages of development (F/E) • Emotional transformations are “functional” in the sense that they enable the child to interact with and comprehend her world, and in the sense that they orchestrate the child’s other developmental capacities

THEORY OF EVOLUTION • Studies of primates and the fossil record suggests that our early hominid ancestors went through the same stages of F/E development as we see in young children • This suggests that they developed and passed on from one generation to the next, over millions of years, the caregiving practices that are critical for a child’s development

Shared Attention and Regulation

Lower primates master attention and regulation (our first level in the ascent of thinking)

They do this through shared gaze and back-and-forth vocalizations during feeding and play.

The common ancestor mastered engaging and relating They accomplished this through lots of subtle back-and-forth emotional interactions between caregivers and infants.

Two-Way Emotional Signaling & Problem-Solving

Emergence of Symbols, Logical Thinking, & Reflective Thinking

Archaic humans acquire symbolic and linguistic abilities • They accomplished this through long complex affective interchanges containing a number of elements of presymbolic communication (600,000 – 100,000 years ago)

Anatomically modern humans began to think logically • Through subtle emotional signaling and the exchange of emerging symbols, caregivers and their children acquire the ability to build bridges between their ideas and to engage in complex group activities (130,000 years ago – present)

Theory of Evolution, cont’d • This theory supports Gottlieb’s probabilistic epigenesis model, according to which behavioral changes can bring about genetic changes • The basic point we make is that the structure and wiring of the brain were changing as a result of the emotional transformations brought about by the evolving caregiving practices passed down from one generation to the next

A New Way of Thinking about Child Development • TFI presents a new way of thinking about development • Hinges on the concept of emotional transformation: Emotions are transformed through interactive experiences • We have known for some time that deprivation produces developmental, language and social disorders, but didn’t know what constitute the “appropriate experiences.” Now we know what the experiences are that promote emotional transformations

Early Stages of F/E Development 1. Shared Attention and Regulation 2. Engaging and Relating 3. Back-and-forth Intentional affective signaling 4. Co-Regulated Emotional (shared social) Problem-Solving

Stages of F/E Development, cont’d 1. Creating Emotionally Meaningful Symbols and Words 2. Building Logical Bridges between meaningful ideas 3. Advanced stages of creative logical and reflective thinking; e.g., level 9, creating a stable sense of self that reflects on an ever-changing and growing reality

Emotional Development • The study of autism makes it clear how critical a healthy nervous system is for emotional development; yet, from observations of children under extreme clinical challenges, we see how coregulated emotional interactions are equally important for the child’s development

Emotional Development, cont’d • The key theme in this theory is that, far from being separate from the rational components of behavior (e.g. ‘appraisals’), emotion and cognition are really one system, operating as a whole, that undergoes a series of emotional transformations

Brain Development • The traditional view assumes a bifurcation between neural systems subserving reason and emotion, epitomized by MacLean’s ‘triune brain’ • The idea that reason can be assigned to the neocortex and emotions to more primitive subcortical systems is no longer tenable • there is simply far too much anatomic and functional overlap to suppose that one can distinguish categorically between systems subserving appraisal versus emotion

Brain Development, cont’d • A great deal of evidence shows that emotions influence cognition (e.g., shaping attention) • Equally, a great deal of research shows how cognition influence emotions • cognitive and emotion systems mutually influence each other through bi-directional causal processes

Brain Development, cont’d • Very early in life, a sensory-affect-motor connection is formed that enables an infant to perceive mother’s voice and then organize a motor response such as looking • It is the pleasure in mother’s voice, i.e., the affect, that enables the infant to coordinate sensations and motor patterns • If, for example, the maternal voice is aversive the infant will not look towards the voice

Brain Development, cont’d • When this process is interrupted because of a primary biological deficit in the sensory-affect-motor connection (or a caregiver disorder), the ability of the infant to learn from his environment and the capacity of his brain to develop the interconnectivity necessary for healthy growth and development is compromised and the expected pruning does not occur

Brain Development, cont’d • To test this hypothesis, we are doing EEG studies of pre- and post- ABA and DIR intervention subjects with autism • We are also comparing DIR and ABA outcomes to see if both demonstrate the same degree of integration • Our hypothesis is that the DIR affect-based approach, which works on re-mobilizing the missing affect transformations, results in a very different pattern of neural organization than in pure ABA

Brain Development, cont’d • What we are seeing is that in successful ABA outcomes is significantly less synchrony up and down the neuroaxis • A pilot study is in progress that is looking at developmental characteristics (not the brain), which is supporting this hypothesis • Children in more behaviorally-based approaches rely on memorized scripts and less on creative problem-solving and thinking

Language Development  Strongly anti-Cartesian, anti-nativist approach  Certain core capacities are vital for a child’s mastery of language: e.g., pattern-recognition, joint attention, imitation, and mindreading  These are all ‘downstream’ abilities that typically occur in the first and in the second year of life  For example, as her ability to engage in longer emotional interactions develops (3rd stage of F/E development), the child learns to predict patterns of adult behavior and act accordingly

Language Development, cont’d • Recognizing patterns helps a toddler predict another’s behavior; e.g., when to expect loving responses, anger, bossiness, etc.

• These patterns are learned in the second year of life, before language comes in significantly • A child may not gain this needed experience for a variety of reasons. E.g., has a motor problem and can’t gesture well; or a parent who is too intrusive and anxious or too self-absorbed or depressed to respond appropriately

Language Development, cont’d • As a baby goes from islands of intentional behavior, such as a few vocalizations or smiles, to dozens of exchanges that she uses to solve problems, she learns that she and others can operate in larger communicative patterns • The child uses this ability to distinguish among many emotional patterns; she knows the difference between gestures that mean safety and comfort and those that mean danger; she can tell approval from disapproval, acceptance from rejection, etc.

Language Development, cont’d • The intuitive ability to decipher human exchanges and pick up emotional cues before any words have been exchanged becomes a sort of ‘supersense’ that often operates faster than our conscious awareness • This ability is a function of experience • Far from being a sudden jump, the transition from pre-symbolic forms of communication to language is enabled by the advances taking place in the child’s emotional gesturing

Language Development, cont’d • With this growing complexity emerge the core capacities noted above that are the critical components of language development • These core capacities all continue to develop as a function of ongoing nonverbal processes, as well as the child’s burgeoning language skills • This series of affective transformations leads to the emergence of language and continues to operate in and be influenced by the child’s mastery of more and more abstract linguistic constructions

Language Development, cont’d • For true language to emerge, a child has to go through these steps; otherwise the child’s language is very mechanical • Symbol formation is not a static phenomenon; for words to have ongoing meanings they need to be invested with more and more emotional meaning (compare the 3 year-old saying ‘I love you’ versus the adult)

Creation of the Milton and Ethel Harris Research Institute • Established to further develop the theory of emotional transformations presented in The First Idea • Three schools within the Institute: – Child development – Primate studies – Clinical studies

• Each with EEG and neuroimaging studies