Vincent M. Reid

The perception of biological motion by infants: An event-related potential study

The current study investigates how human infants process and interpret human movement. Neural correlates to the perception of biological motion by 8-month-old infants were assessed. Analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs) resulting from the passive viewing of upright and inverted point-light displays (PLDs) depicting human movement indicated a larger positive amplitude in right parietal regions between 200 and 300 ms for observing upright PLDs when compared with observing inverted PLDs. These results show that infants at 8 months of age process upright and inverted PLDs differently from each other. The implications for our understanding of infant visual perception are discussed.

The neuropsychology of infants’ pro-social preferences

Highlights • Neural correlates of 6-month-old infants’ detection of pro-social agents.• ERP component P400 over posterior temporal areas index social valence.• First non-behavioral demonstration of pro-social preferences in young infants.

Eye contact during live social interaction modulates infants' oscillatory brain activity

We examined infants’ oscillatory brain activity during a live interaction with an adult who showed them novel objects. Activation in the alpha frequency range was assessed. Nine-month-old infants responded with desynchronization of alpha-band activity when looking at an object together with an adult during a social interaction involving eye contact. When infant and experimenter only looked at the object without engaging in eye contact, no such effect was observed. Results are interpreted in terms of activation of a generic semantic knowledge system induced by eye contact during a social interaction.

The developmental cognitive neuroscience of action: semantics, motor resonance and social processing

The widespread use of EEG methods and the introduction of new brain imaging methods such as near-infrared spectroscopy have made cognitive neuroscience research with infants more feasible, resulting in an explosion of new findings. Among the long-established study of the neural correlates of face and speech perception in infancy, there has been an abundance of recent research on infant perception and production of action and concomitant neurocognitive development. In this review, three significant strands of developmental action research are discussed. The first strand focuses on the relationship of diverse social cognitive processes, including the perception of goals and animacy, and the development of precursors to theory of mind, to action perception. The second investigates the role of motor resonance and mirror systems in early action development. The third strand focuses on the extraction of meaning from action by infants and discusses how semantic processing of action emerges early in life. Although these strands of research are pursued separately, many of the findings from each strand inform all three theoretical frameworks. This review will evaluate the evidence for a synthesised account of infant action development.

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

Sensitivity to structure in action sequences: An infant event-related potential study

ABSTRACT Infants are sensitive to structure and patterns within continuous streams of sensory input. This sensitivity relies on statistical learning, the ability to detect predictable regularities in spatial and temporal sequences. Recent evidence has shown that infants can detect statistical regularities in action sequences they observe, but little is known about the neural process that give rise to this ability. In the current experiment, we combined electroencephalography (EEG) with eye‐tracking to identify electrophysiological markers that indicate whether 8–11‐month‐old infants detect violations to learned regularities in action sequences, and to relate these markers to behavioral measures of anticipation during learning. In a learning phase, infants observed an actor performing a sequence featuring two deterministic pairs embedded within an otherwise random sequence. Thus, the first action of each pair was predictive of what would occur next. One of the pairs caused an action‐effect, whereas the second did not. In a subsequent test phase, infants observed another sequence that included deviant pairs, violating the previously observed action pairs. Event‐related potential (ERP) responses were analyzed and compared between the deviant and the original action pairs. Findings reveal that infants demonstrated a greater Negative central (Nc) ERP response to the deviant actions for the pair that caused the action‐effect, which was consistent with their visual anticipations during the learning phase. Findings are discussed in terms of the neural and behavioral processes underlying perception and learning of structured action sequences. HighlightsInfants show neural responses to action structure based on statistical learning in the first year of life.EEG and eye‐tracking were recorded while 8–11‐month‐old infants observed action sequences with statistical regularities.Sequence violations elicited a Negative central component, a marker of visual attention, when paired with action‐effects.Infants depended on action‐effects to detect the statistical regularities in other peoples action sequences.

The Fixation Distance to the Stimulus Influences ERP Quality: An EEG and Eye Tracking N400 Study

In a typical visual Event Related Potential (ERP) study, the stimulus is presented centrally on the screen. Normally an ERP response will be measured provided that the participant directs their gaze towards the stimulus. The aim of this study was to assess how the N400 component of an ERP was affected when the stimulus was presented in the foveal, parafoveal or peripheral vision of the participant’s visual field. Utilizing stimuli that have previously produced an N400 response to action incongruities, the same stimuli sequences were presented at 0°, 4°, 8° and 12° of visual angle from a fixation location. In addition to the EEG data, eye tracking data were recorded to act as a fixation control method and to allow for eye artifact detection. The results show a significant N400 effect in the right parieto-temporal electrodes within the 0° visual angle condition. For the other conditions, the N400 effect was reduced (4°) or not present (8° and 12°). Our results suggest that the disappearance of the N400 effect with eccentricity is due to the fixation distance to the stimulus. However, variables like attentional allocation could have also had an impact on the results. This study highlights the importance of presenting a stimulus within the foveal vision of the participant in order to maximize ERP effects related to higher order cognitive processes.

Infants Need More Variety – Increased Data Acquisition with Reduced Participant Attrition in Infant ERP Studies

Infant ERP studies often feature high attrition rates with large numbers of trials excluded from statistical analyses. The number of experimental conditions is conventionally limited to reduce the test-sessions’ durations and to ensure that reasonable trial-numbers will be obtained for each condition. Here, we designed an ERP study involving eight conditions originating from three previously published studies and presented them to 18 1-year-olds. We expected to replicate original results at least partly. Additionally, we were interested in the effect this novel method of stimulus presentation would have on infant attention. Due to the requirement for sustained attention, interest may decrease. Alternatively, the stimulus-variability may extend attention, allowing the acquisition of more valid trials. Our main finding was that the variability of the stimulus presentation sustained the infants’ attention beyond normal parameters. This is apparent from the markedly increased number of artifact-free trials obtained and from the substantially decreased attrition rates. Results from a gap-/no gap-task were fully replicated whereas others, related to face-processing, were replicated in part. Additionally, effects that were not reported in the original studies were found. This is most probably due to interference in the information processing between these conditions. The results show that presenting infants with varied stimuli extends their attention, allowing the acquisition of at least four times more data than via current infant ERP methods. However, stimuli from separate sub-experiments must be cognitively and perceptually distinct, otherwise contamination between related factors will occur.

Theta- and alpha-band EEG activity in response to eye gaze cues in early infancy.

In order to elucidate the development of how infants use eye gaze as a referential cue, we investigated theta and alpha oscillations in response to object-directed and object-averted eye gaze in infants aged 2, 4, 5, and 9months. At 2months of age, no difference between conditions was found. In 4- and 9-month-olds, alpha-band activity desynchronized more in response to faces looking at objects compared to faces looking away from objects. Theta activity in 5-month-old infants differed between conditions with more theta synchronization for object-averted eye gaze. Whereas alpha desynchronization might reflect mechanisms of early social object learning, theta is proposed to imply activity in the executive attention network. The interplay between alpha and theta activity represents developmental changes in both kinds of processes during early infancy.