Newborn Brains Are Hard-Wired for Social Interaction: Early Connectivity Predicts Later Social Attention and Development

Recent research has provided compelling evidence that human babies are born with a brain system ready to support social perception, rather than having to build it entirely through experience. Specifically, scientists have identified a specialized neural network called the social perception pathway that shows robust functional connectivity within just a few weeks after birth. This system connects brain regions responsible for processing faces, eye gaze, and speech sounds, and appears to form an early foundation for social engagement and communication skills later in life.

This groundbreaking discovery comes from a large collaborative study conducted by researchers at Yale School of Medicine in the United States and the Developing Human Connectome Project (dHCP), an international initiative that collects developmental brain imaging data from infants. The research, recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science, examined resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from more than 300 full-term newborns and an additional group of infants with and without familial risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). 

The findings revealed that the right-lateralized social perception pathway, which includes the superior temporal sulcus (STS)—a key brain region for interpreting dynamic social cues like facial expressions, vocalizations, and gaze direction—was already active and interconnected within the first weeks of life. This early connectivity was observed not only in typically developing infants but also in those who had a family history of ASD, suggesting that the fundamental structure of the social brain is present from birth and widely shared across the population. 

Importantly, the strength of this early connectivity was linked to measurable social behaviors later in infancy. In a subset of participants, researchers used eye-tracking technology to assess how much attention babies paid to faces at about four months of age. Babies with stronger social pathway connectivity at birth tended to spend significantly more time focusing on faces—a key early indicator of social engagement. Follow-up assessments at eighteen months showed that these same infants were reported by parents to have fewer social communication difficulties, suggesting predictive value for later developmental outcomes.

These results support the view that infants are not blank slates at birth but rather possess a biologically prepared neural infrastructure that supports social perception and attention. While classic developmental theories have held that social skills are shaped entirely through post-natal experience, the new evidence shows that neural circuits for processing social information are already in place very early, ready to be refined through interaction with caregivers and the environment. 

It is important to note, however, that these neural connections do not allow scientists to make individual diagnoses or determine future outcomes with certainty. Rather, the study suggests that variation in the strength of early connectivity may help explain why some children are more sensitive to social cues and develop typical social skills more readily than others. Differences in social attention are among the earliest measurable behavioral markers associated with later ASD, but they are not definitive predictors on their own. 

Supporting research from other developmental neuroscience studies emphasizes the role of early brain networks in social and communicative behavior. For example, longitudinal imaging studies in both human infants and primate models have shown that functional connections between visual and social processing areas strengthen over the first months of life, and that atypical connectivity patterns are associated with altered social attention and ASD-related traits. 

In addition, studies of broader network systems such as the Salience Network—which helps orient attention to important environmental stimuli—have found that connectivity differences in early infancy can be linked to later sensory processing and social engagement patterns, particularly in infants at high likelihood for ASD.

Taken together, this expanding body of research underscores how early brain wiring plays a crucial role in the developmental cascade of social cognition, attention, and communication. While experiences after birth further shape these capacities, the presence of a functional social perception network so early in life highlights the remarkable preparedness of the newborn brain for social connection.

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Sources (selected peer-reviewed and institutional research):

• Katherine Chawarska et al., Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science, 2025. 

• Yale School of Medicine press release on infant social brain networks. 

• Yale-related research summary on newborn functional connectivity and social attention. 

• Early functional connectivity and social attention development studies. 

• Infant Salience Network connectivity and early social behavior.