Kirsty Dunn

The functional foetal brain : a systematic preview of methodological factors in reporting foetal visual and auditory capacity.

Highlights • Differences in parameters of functional foetal brain imaging studies are explored.• These variations potentially contribute to variation in published findings.• Where parameter information is provided, there are variations in techniques, and measures.• Critical aspects of design likely impact response rates and latencies reported.• For comparisons of data, more aspects of stimulus presentation should be detailed.

CorrectionThe Human Fetus Preferentially Engages with Face-like Visual Stimuli

Vincent M. Reid, Kirsty Dunn, Robert J. Young, Johnson Amu, Tim Donovan, Nadja Reissland 1 Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, United Kingdom, LA1 4YF. 2 Department of Physics, Lancaster University, United Kingdom, LA1 4YB 3 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Blackpool NHS Trust, United Kingdom, FY3 8NR 4 Medical and Sports Sciences, University of Cumbria, United Kingdom, LA1 3JD 5 Department of Psychology, Durham University, United Kingdom, DH1 3LE

Investigating looking and social looking measures as an index of infant violation of expectation

Abstract Accumulated looking time has been widely used to index violation of expectation (VoE) response in young infants. But there is controversy concerning the validity of this measure, with some interpreting infant looking behaviour in terms of perceptual preferences (Cohen & Marks, 2002; Haith, 1998). The current study aimed to compare the use of looking time with a recently used measure of social looking (Walden et al., 2007) in distinguishing between 6‐month‐old infants’ response to novelty/familiarity and a condition in which the object was covertly switched for a different object. Following habituation, infants showed more social looking in response to the object‐switch condition than the novel object change, whereas the more commonly used accumulated looking time measure did not distinguish between the two, showing an increase for both. Thus, social looking is a more valid measure of infant VoE than looking time.

Development of Brain Mechanisms for Social Attention in Humans

It is known that infants are sensitive to the gaze of adults from birth. This chapter explores the types of neural processes that are at the core of the development of infant social-cognitive processing, particularly for eye gaze and joint attention. How are these processes likely to be affected by disorders such as autism? Data from studies utilizing electroencephalography and event-related potential techniques (EEG/ERPs) indicate that aspects of processing gaze are relatively advanced by 4 months of age. How these shared attention mechanisms may relate to wider domains within cognitive development is also outlined in this chapter together with how gaze may be related to semantic processing of social information.

Response to Scheel et al.

Scheel et al.[1] highlight three types of methodological concern with the work reported in our recent paper [2], related to analytical decisions, fetal behavior, and how light interfaces with maternal tissue. Here we outline why the issues raised do not detract from our originally reported conclusions. In our view, the procedural and analytical decisions that we made in our study [2] were the most appropriate given the uncharted territory that we explored. The best test of methodological robustness of our approach would be replication by another laboratory.