Learning from your baby and family's journey
Study Purpose
Before they are born, do babies react differently to speech than other noises in the womb?
How do newborn babies learn what is important, focusing on relevant sounds and objects?
How do parents help their babies recognize the range of human-like faces and voices?
PIPKIN Participation Video
An empirical snapshot of your unique baby
Parenting or Expecting a Baby? Get involved!
We are actively recruiting expectant parents and parents of babies younger than 6 months.
Email us: PIPKIN@ psychol.cam.ac.uk
Participation Timeline
Welcome
20+ weeks: Questionnaires
~30 weeks: Ultrasound
34+ weeks: Ultrasound 2
Congratulations!
Week 1: Home Visit
Week 2: Home Visit
1 Month: Home Visit
Your Growing Baby
2 month: Parent Recording
4 month: Parent Recording
~5 months: Lab Visit
Our Imaging Approaches
4D ultrasound collects a time-stamped video of your baby in the womb, allowing healthcare specialist and researchers to record a video of your baby's movements. Like other ultrasound scans, 4D ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to generate images of organs and tissues inside the body. These sound waves are emitted by a special probe scanned by the sonographer, an NHS employee at the Rosie Maternity Hospital.
Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive optical neuroimaging technique that assesses localised brain activation. It measures absorption of near infrared light within different areas of the cortex in response to our stimuli. The more light is absorbed, the more oxygen is being used within an area, which indicates neural activity. The relative transparency of the biological tissue allows the near infrared light to capture these distinct absorption characteristics of oxy- and deoxy-haemoglobin concentration changes.
The infant electroencephalography (EEG) system measures the natural electrical activity in your baby’s brain, which is generated by your brain cells (neurons) and can be passively measured on the surface of your head. The EEG signals are measured by gel electrodes that are placed in a stretchy cap. Our system, a portable, wireless Enobio 20-channel cap custom-made for small heads, sits comfortably on babies' heads like a winter hat, then transfers the signals wirelessly to the computer.
Learn more about the fellowship and purpose of the PIPKIN study
Learn more about CoCoPIP's purpose and insight into 'Generation COVID'
Learn how our CoCoPIP study provided insight into the concerns of new and pregnant parents during the pandemic
Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale is a tool that lets us listen to the baby’s voice right from birth through observing their behaviour and unique communication cues. Understanding baby’s early social signals and interpreting them along with parents gives us a glimpse to their emerging personality and preferences.
The scale involves presenting your baby with objects to interact with when awake and sounds (such as ringing a bell) as they sleep to observe their responses and reactions to a range of experiences.
Our 'Babeyes' Home Recording visit lets us envision the world through the eyes of a 2-4 month old, learning from daily social interactions and absorbing their naturalistic home surroundings. While we record babies' reactions to what they see and hear using the LENA (Language ENvironment Analysis) voice recorder, Babeyes head-strapped camera and a heart rate monitor (echocardiogram or ECG).
Mullen Scales of Early Learning is a task that highlights children's motor, language and visual skills through a set of interactive games. A researcher engages your child with blocks, peak-a-boo and tummy time tasks to learn how refined their abilities relative to their age and parents also report on their child's vocalizations and reactions.
4D ultrasound collects a time-stamped video of your baby in the womb, allowing healthcare specialist and researchers to record a video of your baby's movements. Like other ultrasound scans, 4D ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to generate images of organs and tissues inside the body. These sound waves are emitted by a special probe scanned by the sonographer, an NHS employee at the Rosie Maternity Hospital.
Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive optical neuroimaging technique that assesses localised brain activation. It measures absorption of near infrared light within different areas of the cortex in response to our stimuli. The more light is absorbed, the more oxygen is being used within an area, which indicates neural activity. The relative transparency of the biological tissue allows the near infrared light to capture these distinct absorption characteristics of oxy- and deoxy-haemoglobin concentration changes.
Mullen Scales of Early Learning is a task that highlights children's motor, language and visual skills through a set of interactive games and tasks. We also track babies’ movements and gaze throughout an interaction with their parents at 1 and 5 months using software and our expert coders to identify interesting behaviors that children use to soothe themselves and explore their environments, and moments of synchrony between parent and child.