I Donated my Child to Science

It's happened a couple of times now. B.Y.U. Infant Development Lab uses birth records to find willing participants in various child development studies. When David was little, the study was about whether or not 6 month old babies could differentiate between a happy dog bark and an aggressive/mean dog bark. They put photos of dogs on two screens side by side, played a dog bark sound track, then watched through a hole in a black screen to see if they looked at the right dog.

This time it was Briggy's turn. They strapped this little contraption on his head that had electrodes on it. After making sure the electrodes were placed correctly, they began the study. They showed a picture of a short (cartoon) caterpillar combined with a short beep, then a picture of a long caterpillar with a long beep. They did this a few times, then showed a picture of a duck (to neutralize the brain. Although I'm sure "neutralizing the brain" isn't a scientific term. It's just what makes sense in my brain). Then, they mixed it up by showing the short caterpillar with a long beep and the long caterpillar with the short beep. The test was to see if their 4 month old brain picked up on the change. They did this by tracking the parts of his brain that were active during the test. They (the students that perform the test) have always been so great to work with. I don't get compensated at all for the tests, but it's kind of fun to know that we've helped to move child development studies along! Who knows, maybe someday somewhere I could hear this: "In 2009 they conducted a study with 4 month old infants to see if they could detect the difference between caterpillars and beeps of varying lengths..." and I can smile and know that my kids made that possible.

Here is Briggy in all his electrode glory. It looks uncomfortable but he didn't complain at all.