Attention affects the recognition of briefly presented visual stimuli in infants: an ERP study

Abstract

This study examined the effect of attention in infants on the ERP changes occurring during the recognition of briefly presented visual stimuli. Infants at ages 4.5, 6 and 7.5 months were presented with a Sesame Street movie that elicited periods of attention and inattention, and computer-generated stimuli were presented overlaid on the movie for 500 ms. One stimulus was familiar to the infants and was presented frequently, a second stimulus was familiar but presented infrequently, and a set of 14 novel stimuli were presented infrequently. An ERP component labeled the 'Nc' (Negative Central, about 450-550 ms after stimulus onset) was larger during attention than inattention and increased in magnitude over the three testing ages during attention. Late slow waves in the ERP (from 1000 to 2000 ms post-stimulus onset) consisted of a positive slow wave in response to the infrequent familiar stimulus at all three testing ages. The late slow wave in response to the infrequent novel stimulus during attention was a positive slow wave for the 4.5-month-old infants, to a positivenegative slow wave for the 6-month-old infants and a negative slow wave for the 7.5-month-old infants. These results show attention facilitates the brain response during infant recognition memory and show that developmental changes in recognition memory are closely related to changes in attention.

Biological Systems and the Development of Self-Regulation: Integrating Behavior, Genetics, and Psychophysiology

“…100,101 For example, during infancy, there is an ERP component called the Nc (negative central, latency ϭ 700 ms after stimulus onset) at frontal and central scalp electrodes that increases in amplitude between 4 and 7.5 months during the process of sustained attention. 102 This developmental pattern parallels gains in initial development of the Executive Attention System noted by Rothbart et al 18 Spatial components analysis of infant ERPs locates the cortical source of the Nc at the prefrontal cortex and ACC. 102,103 Another physiological measure of brain electrical activity is the electroencephalogram (EEG).…”

“…102 This developmental pattern parallels gains in initial development of the Executive Attention System noted by Rothbart et al 18 Spatial components analysis of infant ERPs locates the cortical source of the Nc at the prefrontal cortex and ACC. 102,103 Another physiological measure of brain electrical activity is the electroencephalogram (EEG). The EEG signal is continuous and spontaneous but context related, meaning that the signal generated during quiet rest is different from the signal generated during mental activity.…”

Weaker top–down modulation from the left inferior frontal gyrus in children

“…Both tasks included items that were phonologically similar, but orthographically dissimilar (e.g., hope-soap), so participants had to ignore irrelevant orthography to make a rhyming judgment and irrelevant phonology to make a spelling judgment. Previous studies show that children's ability to enhance the processing of task-relevant information (Richards, 2003;van der Stelt et al, 1998) and suppress interference from information that is irrelevant to the task is weaker compared to adults (Bunge et al, 2002;Casey et al, 2001Casey et al, , 2002Tipper et al, 1989;Williams et al, 1999). We suggest that weaker control of the IFG over posterior regions underlies the children's relative difficulty in performing the tasks in the current study.…”

Familiarization, Attention, and Recognition Memory in Infancy: An Event-Related Potential and Cortical Source Localization Study.

“…Six-month-old infants' response to the infrequent-familiar event took the form of a positive slow wave, whereas their response to the infrequent-novel event took the form of a negative slow wave. The negative slow wave was proposed to reflect novelty detection, whereas the positive slow wave was proposed to be associated with an updating of working memory for a stimulus that had previously been partially processed.A close association between attention and the Nc component was shown in a recent study by Richards (2003a). Infants were tested at 4.5, 6, or 7.5 months of age.…”

“…Studies have shown that the anterior cingulate is involved in visual target detection and in the control or direction of attention (Casey et al, 1997;GoldmanRakic, 1988 (Rothbart, Posner, & Rosicky, 1994). In distinction with the Nc component, the late slow wave components most likely reflect recognition memory processes (Nelson & Collins, 1991Richards, 2003a). Structures within the medial temporal lobe have been assumed to underlie VRM (e.g., Nelson & Dukette, 1998).…”