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Nazzari S, Darvehei F, Jensen EN, Lucchin S, Samoukina A, Provenzi L. In the heat of connection: using infrared thermal imaging to shed new light into early parent-infant co-regulation patterns. Front Behav Neurosci 2024; 18:1388886. [PMID: 38645836 PMCID: PMC11027734 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1388886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2024] [Accepted: 03/26/2024] [Indexed: 04/23/2024] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Nazzari
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Fatemeh Darvehei
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Ellie Nicole Jensen
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Samuele Lucchin
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | | | - Livio Provenzi
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
- Developmental Psychobiology Lab, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
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2
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Geangu E, Smith WAP, Mason HT, Martinez-Cedillo AP, Hunter D, Knight MI, Liang H, del Carmen Garcia de Soria Bazan M, Tse ZTH, Rowland T, Corpuz D, Hunter J, Singh N, Vuong QC, Abdelgayed MRS, Mullineaux DR, Smith S, Muller BR. EgoActive: Integrated Wireless Wearable Sensors for Capturing Infant Egocentric Auditory-Visual Statistics and Autonomic Nervous System Function 'in the Wild'. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 23:7930. [PMID: 37765987 PMCID: PMC10534696 DOI: 10.3390/s23187930] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Revised: 08/25/2023] [Accepted: 09/11/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023]
Abstract
There have been sustained efforts toward using naturalistic methods in developmental science to measure infant behaviors in the real world from an egocentric perspective because statistical regularities in the environment can shape and be shaped by the developing infant. However, there is no user-friendly and unobtrusive technology to densely and reliably sample life in the wild. To address this gap, we present the design, implementation and validation of the EgoActive platform, which addresses limitations of existing wearable technologies for developmental research. EgoActive records the active infants' egocentric perspective of the world via a miniature wireless head-mounted camera concurrently with their physiological responses to this input via a lightweight, wireless ECG/acceleration sensor. We also provide software tools to facilitate data analyses. Our validation studies showed that the cameras and body sensors performed well. Families also reported that the platform was comfortable, easy to use and operate, and did not interfere with daily activities. The synchronized multimodal data from the EgoActive platform can help tease apart complex processes that are important for child development to further our understanding of areas ranging from executive function to emotion processing and social learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Geangu
- Psychology Department, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK; (A.P.M.-C.); (M.d.C.G.d.S.B.)
| | - William A. P. Smith
- Department of Computer Science, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK; (W.A.P.S.); (J.H.); (M.R.S.A.); (B.R.M.)
| | - Harry T. Mason
- School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK; (H.T.M.); (D.H.); (N.S.); (S.S.)
| | | | - David Hunter
- School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK; (H.T.M.); (D.H.); (N.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Marina I. Knight
- Department of Mathematics, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK; (M.I.K.); (D.R.M.)
| | - Haipeng Liang
- School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AT, UK; (H.L.); (Z.T.H.T.)
| | | | - Zion Tsz Ho Tse
- School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AT, UK; (H.L.); (Z.T.H.T.)
| | - Thomas Rowland
- Protolabs, Halesfield 8, Telford TF7 4QN, UK; (T.R.); (D.C.)
| | - Dom Corpuz
- Protolabs, Halesfield 8, Telford TF7 4QN, UK; (T.R.); (D.C.)
| | - Josh Hunter
- Department of Computer Science, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK; (W.A.P.S.); (J.H.); (M.R.S.A.); (B.R.M.)
| | - Nishant Singh
- School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK; (H.T.M.); (D.H.); (N.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Quoc C. Vuong
- Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK;
| | - Mona Ragab Sayed Abdelgayed
- Department of Computer Science, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK; (W.A.P.S.); (J.H.); (M.R.S.A.); (B.R.M.)
| | - David R. Mullineaux
- Department of Mathematics, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK; (M.I.K.); (D.R.M.)
| | - Stephen Smith
- School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK; (H.T.M.); (D.H.); (N.S.); (S.S.)
| | - Bruce R. Muller
- Department of Computer Science, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK; (W.A.P.S.); (J.H.); (M.R.S.A.); (B.R.M.)
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3
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Geangu E, Vuong QC. Seven-months-old infants show increased arousal to static emotion body expressions: Evidence from pupil dilation. INFANCY 2023. [PMID: 36917082 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12535] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2022] [Revised: 12/23/2022] [Accepted: 02/10/2023] [Indexed: 03/16/2023]
Abstract
Human body postures provide perceptual cues that can be used to discriminate and recognize emotions. It was previously found that 7-months-olds' fixation patterns discriminated fear from other emotion body expressions but it is not clear whether they also process the emotional content of those expressions. The emotional content of visual stimuli can increase arousal level resulting in pupil dilations. To provide evidence that infants also process the emotional content of expressions, we analyzed variations in pupil in response to emotion stimuli. Forty-eight 7-months-old infants viewed adult body postures expressing anger, fear, happiness and neutral expressions, while their pupil size was measured. There was a significant emotion effect between 1040 and 1640 ms after image onset, when fear elicited larger pupil dilations than neutral expressions. A similar trend was found for anger expressions. Our results suggest that infants have increased arousal to negative-valence body expressions. Thus, in combination with previous fixation results, the pupil data show that infants as young as 7-months can perceptually discriminate static body expressions and process the emotional content of those expressions. The results extend information about infant processing of emotion expressions conveyed through other means (e.g., faces).
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Geangu
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, UK
| | - Quoc C Vuong
- Biosciences Institute and School of Psychology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
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4
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Sacheli LM, Roberti E, Turati C. Encoding interactive scripts at 10 months of age. J Exp Child Psychol 2023; 227:105588. [PMID: 36512919 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2022] [Revised: 09/30/2022] [Accepted: 11/02/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Understanding action-reaction associations that give origin to interactive scripts (e.g., give-and-take interactions) is essential for appreciating social exchanges. However, studies on infants' action understanding have mainly investigated the case of actions performed by individual agents. Moreover, although extensive literature has explored infants' comprehension of action-effect relationships in object functioning, no study has addressed whether it also plays a role when observing social interactions, an issue we addressed here. In a first study, 10-month-old infants observed short videos of dyadic exchanges. We investigated whether they were able to link specific human gestures directed toward another person to specific vocal reactions in the receiver. We used a double-habituation paradigm in which infants were sequentially habituated to two specific action-reaction associations. In the test phase, infants watched one of the two habituated (Familiar) videos, a video with a reversed action-reaction association (Violation), and a Novel video. Results showed that the infants looked longer at both the Novel and Violation test trials than at the Familiar test trials. In a control study, we show that these results could not be accounted for by associative learning; indeed, learning of the action-reaction association did not occur when the vocalization was not produced by the receiver but only contingent on the agent's action. Thus, we show that 10-month-old infants can encode specific social action-effect relationships during the observation of dyadic interactions and that the interactivity of the social context may be critical to shaping young infants' understanding of others' behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucia Maria Sacheli
- Department of Psychology and Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMI), University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy.
| | - Elisa Roberti
- Department of Psychology and Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMI), University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy
| | - Chiara Turati
- Department of Psychology and Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMI), University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy.
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5
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Ke H, Vuong QC, Geangu E. Three- and six-year-old children are sensitive to natural body expressions of emotion: An event-related potential emotional priming study. J Exp Child Psychol 2022; 224:105497. [PMID: 35850023 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2021] [Revised: 03/23/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Body movements provide a rich source of emotional information during social interactions. Although the ability to perceive biological motion cues related to those movements begins to develop during infancy, processing those cues to identify emotions likely continues to develop into childhood. Previous studies used posed or exaggerated body movements, which might not reflect the kind of body expressions children experience. The current study used an event-related potential (ERP) priming paradigm to investigate the development of emotion recognition from more naturalistic body movements. Point-light displays (PLDs) of male adult bodies expressing happy or angry emotional movements while narrating a story were used as prime stimuli, whereas audio recordings of the words "happy" and "angry" spoken with an emotionally neutral prosody were used as targets. We recorded the ERPs time-locked to the onset of the auditory target from 3- and 6-year-old children, and we compared amplitude and latency of the N300 and N400 responses between the two age groups in the different prime-target conditions. There was an overall effect of prime for the N300 amplitude, with more negative-going responses for happy PLDs compared with angry PLDs. There was also an interaction between prime and target for the N300 latency, suggesting that all children were sensitive to the emotional congruency between body movements and words. For the N400 component, there was only an interaction among age, prime, and target for latency, suggesting an age-dependent modulation of this component when prime and target did not match in emotional information. Overall, our results suggest that the emergence of more complex emotion processing of body expressions occurs around 6 years of age, but it is not fully developed at this point in ontogeny.
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Affiliation(s)
- Han Ke
- Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YF, UK.
| | - Quoc C Vuong
- Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH, UK
| | - Elena Geangu
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK
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6
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Polver S, Quadrelli E, Turati C, Bulf H. Decoding functional brain networks through graph measures in infancy: The case of emotional faces. Biol Psychol 2022; 170:108292. [PMID: 35217132 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108292] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2021] [Revised: 02/02/2022] [Accepted: 02/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Graph measures represent an optimal way to investigate neural networks' organization, yet their application is still limited in developmental samples. To uncover the organization of 7-month-old infants' functional brain networks during an emotional perception task, we combined a decoding technique (i.e., Principal Component Regression) to graph metrics computation. Nodes' Within Module Degree Z Score (WMDZ) was computed as a measure of modular organization, and we decoded networks' functional organizations across EEG alpha and theta bands in response to static and dynamic facial expressions of emotions. We found that infants' brain topological activity differentiates between static and dynamic emotional faces due to the involvement of visual streams and sensorimotor areas, as often observed in adults. Moreover, network invariances point toward an already present rudimental network structure tuned to face processing already at 7-months of age. Overall, our results affirm the fruitfulness of the application of graph measures in developmental samples, due to their flexibility and the wealth of information they provide over infants' networks functional organization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Silvia Polver
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy.
| | - Ermanno Quadrelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy; NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy.
| | - Chiara Turati
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy; NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy.
| | - Hermann Bulf
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy; NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano (MI), Italy.
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7
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Quadrelli E, Roberti E, Polver S, Bulf H, Turati C. Sensorimotor Activity and Network Connectivity to Dynamic and Static Emotional Faces in 7-Month-Old Infants. Brain Sci 2021; 11:brainsci11111396. [PMID: 34827394 PMCID: PMC8615901 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11111396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2021] [Revised: 10/20/2021] [Accepted: 10/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study investigated whether, as in adults, 7-month-old infants’ sensorimotor brain areas are recruited in response to the observation of emotional facial expressions. Activity of the sensorimotor cortex, as indexed by µ rhythm suppression, was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) while infants observed neutral, angry, and happy facial expressions either in a static (N = 19) or dynamic (N = 19) condition. Graph theory analysis was used to investigate to which extent neural activity was functionally localized in specific cortical areas. Happy facial expressions elicited greater sensorimotor activation compared to angry faces in the dynamic experimental condition, while no difference was found between the three expressions in the static condition. Results also revealed that happy but not angry nor neutral expressions elicited a significant right-lateralized activation in the dynamic condition. Furthermore, dynamic emotional faces generated more efficient processing as they elicited higher global efficiency and lower networks’ diameter compared to static faces. Overall, current results suggest that, contrarily to neutral and angry faces, happy expressions elicit sensorimotor activity at 7 months and dynamic emotional faces are more efficiently processed by functional brain networks. Finally, current data provide evidence of the existence of a right-lateralized activity for the processing of happy facial expressions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ermanno Quadrelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Edificio U6, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano, Italy; (E.R.); (S.P.); (H.B.); (C.T.)
- NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, 20126 Milano, Italy
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +39-026-448-3775
| | - Elisa Roberti
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Edificio U6, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano, Italy; (E.R.); (S.P.); (H.B.); (C.T.)
- NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, 20126 Milano, Italy
| | - Silvia Polver
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Edificio U6, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano, Italy; (E.R.); (S.P.); (H.B.); (C.T.)
| | - Hermann Bulf
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Edificio U6, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano, Italy; (E.R.); (S.P.); (H.B.); (C.T.)
- NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, 20126 Milano, Italy
| | - Chiara Turati
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Edificio U6, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano, Italy; (E.R.); (S.P.); (H.B.); (C.T.)
- NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, 20126 Milano, Italy
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8
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Do infants represent human actions cross-modally? An ERP visual-auditory priming study. Biol Psychol 2021; 160:108047. [PMID: 33596461 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2020] [Revised: 01/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Recent findings indicate that 7-months-old infants perceive and represent the sounds inherent to moving human bodies. However, it is not known whether infants integrate auditory and visual information in representations of specific human actions. To address this issue, we used ERPs to investigate infants' neural sensitivity to the correspondence between sounds and images of human actions. In a cross-modal priming paradigm, 7-months-olds were presented with the sounds generated by two types of human body movement, walking and handclapping, after watching the kinematics of those actions in either a congruent or incongruent manner. ERPs recorded from frontal, central and parietal electrodes in response to action sounds indicate that 7-months-old infants perceptually link the visual and auditory cues of human actions. However, at this age these percepts do not seem to be integrated in cognitive multimodal representations of human actions.
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Abstract
Several adult studies have proved the existence of a shared neural circuit in the somatosensory cortices that responds to both the body being touched and the sight of the body being touched. Despite the fundamental role of touch in infancy, the existence of similar visuo-tactile mirroring processes, supporting both felt and seen touch, still needs an in-depth empirical investigation. To this aim, we explored 8-month-olds mu desynchronization over somatosensory sites in response to felt and observed touch in a live experimental setting. EEG desynchronization (6-8 Hz mu frequency range) was measured during three experimental conditions: i) infants were stroked on their right hand by a parent (Touch condition); ii) infants observed a right hand being stroked (Observation Touch condition); iii) infants observed a right hand moving over the left hand without making contact (Action Control condition). Mu desynchronization of somatosensory sites contralateral to the hand being stroked emerged in response to both Touch and Observation Touch conditions, but not in the Action control condition. Further, greater mu desynchronization was found in the Touch and Observation Touch conditions as compared to the Action control condition. Our results highlight the early involvement of a shared somatosensory system, likely supporting infants' understanding of others' tactile sensations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Margaret Addabbo
- Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca , Milano, Italy.,NeuroMi, Milan Center for Neuroscience , Milano, Italy
| | - Ermanno Quadrelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca , Milano, Italy.,NeuroMi, Milan Center for Neuroscience , Milano, Italy
| | - Nadia Bolognini
- Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca , Milano, Italy.,NeuroMi, Milan Center for Neuroscience , Milano, Italy
| | - Elena Nava
- Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca , Milano, Italy.,NeuroMi, Milan Center for Neuroscience , Milano, Italy
| | - Chiara Turati
- Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca , Milano, Italy.,NeuroMi, Milan Center for Neuroscience , Milano, Italy
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10
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Geangu E, Vuong QC. Look up to the body: An eye-tracking investigation of 7-months-old infants' visual exploration of emotional body expressions. Infant Behav Dev 2020; 60:101473. [PMID: 32739668 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101473] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2019] [Revised: 07/22/2020] [Accepted: 07/22/2020] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
The human body is an important source of information to infer a person's emotional state. Research with adult observers indicate that the posture of the torso, arms and hands provide important perceptual cues for recognising anger, fear and happy expressions. Much less is known about whether infants process body regions differently for different body expressions. To address this issue, we used eye tracking to investigate whether infants' visual exploration patterns differed when viewing body expressions. Forty-eight 7-months-old infants were randomly presented with static images of adult female bodies expressing anger, fear and happiness, as well as an emotionally-neutral posture. Facial cues to emotional state were removed by masking the faces. We measured the proportion of looking time, proportion and number of fixations, and duration of fixations on the head, upper body and lower body regions for the different expressions. We showed that infants explored the upper body more than the lower body. Importantly, infants at this age fixated differently on different body regions depending on the expression of the body posture. In particular, infants spent a larger proportion of their looking times and had longer fixation durations on the upper body for fear relative to the other expressions. These results extend and replicate the information about infant processing of emotional expressions displayed by human bodies, and they support the hypothesis that infants' visual exploration of human bodies is driven by the upper body.
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11
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Quadrelli E, Anzani A, Ferri M, Bolognini N, Maravita A, Zambonin F, Turati C. Electrophysiological correlates of action observation treatment in children with cerebral palsy: A pilot study. Dev Neurobiol 2020; 79:934-948. [PMID: 31981294 DOI: 10.1002/dneu.22734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2019] [Revised: 01/17/2020] [Accepted: 01/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Action Observation Treatment (AOT) has been shown to be effective in the functional recovery of several clinical populations. However, little is known about the neural underpinnings of the clinical efficacy of AOT in children with Cerebral Palsy (CP). Using electroencephalography (EEG), we recorded µ rhythm desynchronization as an index of sensorimotor cortex modulation during a passive action observation task before and after AOT. The relationship between sensorimotor modulation and clinical outcomes was also assessed. Eight children with CP entered the present randomized controlled crossover pilot study in which the experimental AOT preceded or followed a control Videogame Observation Treatment (VOT). Results provide further evidence of the clinical efficacy of AOT for improving hand motor function in CP, as assessed with the Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA) and Melbourne Assessment of Unilateral Upper Limb Function Scale (MUUL). The novel finding is that AOT increases µ rhythm desynchronization at scalp locations corresponding to the hand representation areas. This effect is associated to functional improvement assessed with the MUUL. These preliminary findings, although referred to as a small sample, suggest that AOT may affect upper limb motor recovery in children with CP and modulate the activation of sensorimotor areas, offering a potential neurophysiological correlate to support the clinical utility of AOT.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ermanno Quadrelli
- Department of Psychology, Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
| | - Anna Anzani
- Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, ASST dei Sette Laghi, Varese, Italy
| | - Matteo Ferri
- Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, ASST dei Sette Laghi, Varese, Italy
| | - Nadia Bolognini
- Department of Psychology, Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy.,Laboratory of Neuropsychology, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milano, Italy
| | - Angelo Maravita
- Department of Psychology, Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
| | - Fabio Zambonin
- Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, ASST dei Sette Laghi, Varese, Italy
| | - Chiara Turati
- Department of Psychology, Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy.,Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, ASST dei Sette Laghi, Varese, Italy
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12
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Quadrelli E, Roberti E, Turati C, Craighero L. Observation of the point-light animation of a grasping hand activates sensorimotor cortex in nine-month-old infants. Cortex 2019; 119:373-385. [PMID: 31401422 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.07.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2019] [Revised: 05/27/2019] [Accepted: 07/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Measuring changes in sensorimotor alpha band activity in nine-month-old infants we sought to understand the involvement of the sensorimotor cortex during observation of the Point-Light (PL) animation of a grasping hand. Attenuation of alpha activity was found both when the PL display moved towards the to-be-grasped object and when the object was deleted from the video. Before the beginning of the movement of the PL stimuli, only in the presence of the object evoked attenuation of sensorimotor alpha activity was documented, possibly interpreted either as movement prediction or as graspable object perception. Our main findings demonstrate that, during observation of stimuli moving with biological kinematics, the infants' sensorimotor system is activated when the pictorial information is absent or highly reduced, and independently of the presence of the goal-directed object. The possible compensatory function of the sensorimotor system during observation of highly degraded moving stimuli is discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ermanno Quadrelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy; NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Italy
| | - Elisa Roberti
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy; NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Italy
| | - Chiara Turati
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy; NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Italy
| | - Laila Craighero
- Department of Biomedical and Specialty Surgical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Italy.
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