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Grossmann T. Social Perception in the Infant Brain and Its Link to Social Behavior. J Cogn Neurosci 2024; 36:1341-1349. [PMID: 38652111 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/25/2024]
Abstract
The current longitudinal study (n = 98) utilized a developmental cognitive neuroscience approach to examine whether and how variability in social perception is linked to social behavior in early human development. Cortical responses to processing dynamic faces were investigated using functional near-infrared spectroscopy at 7 months. Individual differences in sociability were measured using the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire at 18 months. Confirming previous work with infants and adults, functional near-infrared spectroscopy results show that viewing changing faces recruited superior temporal cortices in 7-month-old infants, adding to the view that this brain system is specialized in social perception from early in ontogeny. Our longitudinal results show that greater engagement of the right superior temporal cortex at 7 months predicts higher levels of sociability at 18 months. This suggests that early variability in social perception is linked to later differences in overtly displayed social behavior, providing novel longitudinal evidence for a social brain-behavior association.
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Nakashima Y, Kanazawa S, Yamaguchi MK. Recognition of humans from biological motion in infants. Atten Percept Psychophys 2023; 85:2567-2576. [PMID: 36859538 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-023-02675-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/11/2023] [Indexed: 03/03/2023]
Abstract
Infant studies have suggested that the detection of biological motion (BM) might be an innate capacity, based on newborns' spontaneous preference for BM. However, it is unclear if, like adults, infants recognize humans from BM and are able to build the representation of bodies and faces. To address this issue, we tested whether exposure to BM influences subsequent face recognition in 3- to 8-month-old infants. After familiarization with a point-light walker (PLW) of either a female or a male, the infant's preference for female and male faces was measured. If infants can build the representation of not only the body but also the face from PLWs, the familiarization effect of gender induced by the PLW might be generalized to faces. We found that infants at 7 to 8 months looked for longer at the face whose gender was opposite to that of the PLW, whereas 3- to 4- and 5- to 6-month-old infants did not. These results suggest that infants can access the representation of humans from BM and extract gender, which is shared across bodies and faces, from at least 7 to 8 months of age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yusuke Nakashima
- Research and Development Initiative, Chuo University, 742-1 Higashinakano, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo, 192-0393, Japan.
| | - So Kanazawa
- Department of Psychology, Japan Women's University, Tokyo, Japan
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Lisboa IC, Basso DM, Santos JA, Pereira AF. Three Months-Old' Preferences for Biological Motion Configuration and Its Subsequent Decline. Brain Sci 2022; 12:566. [PMID: 35624952 PMCID: PMC9139228 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12050566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2022] [Revised: 04/19/2022] [Accepted: 04/21/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
To perceive, identify and understand the action of others, it is essential to perceptually organize individual and local moving body parts (such as limbs) into the whole configuration of a human body in action. Configural processing-processing the relations among features or parts of a stimulus-is a fundamental ability in the perception of several important social stimuli, such as faces or biological motion. Despite this, we know very little about how human infants develop the ability to perceive and prefer configural relations in biological motion. We present two preferential looking experiments (one cross-sectional and one longitudinal) measuring infants' preferential attention between a coherent motion configuration of a person walking vs. a scrambled point-light walker (i.e., a stimulus in which all configural relations were removed, thus, in which the perception of a person is impossible). We found that three-month-old infants prefer a coherent point-light walker in relation to a scrambled display, but both five- and seven-month-old infants do not show any preference. We discuss our findings in terms of the different perceptual, attentional, motor, and brain processes available at each age group, and how they dynamically interact with selective attention toward the coherent and socially relevant motion of a person walking during our first year of life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabel C. Lisboa
- Psychology Research Centre (CiPsi), School of Psychology, Campus de Gualtar, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
- Algoritmi Research Centre, School of Engineering, Campus de Azurém, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal;
| | - Daniel M. Basso
- UNINOVA-CTS, Campus de Caparica, NOVA University of Lisbon, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal; (D.M.B.); (A.F.P.)
| | - Jorge A. Santos
- Algoritmi Research Centre, School of Engineering, Campus de Azurém, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal;
- Centre for Computer Graphics, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
- School of Psychology, Campus de Gualtar, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
| | - Alfredo F. Pereira
- UNINOVA-CTS, Campus de Caparica, NOVA University of Lisbon, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal; (D.M.B.); (A.F.P.)
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Kosakowski HL, Cohen MA, Takahashi A, Keil B, Kanwisher N, Saxe R. Selective responses to faces, scenes, and bodies in the ventral visual pathway of infants. Curr Biol 2022; 32:265-274.e5. [PMID: 34784506 PMCID: PMC8792213 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.10.064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2021] [Revised: 09/27/2021] [Accepted: 10/28/2021] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
Three of the most robust functional landmarks in the human brain are the selective responses to faces in the fusiform face area (FFA), scenes in the parahippocampal place area (PPA), and bodies in the extrastriate body area (EBA). Are the selective responses of these regions present early in development or do they require many years to develop? Prior evidence leaves this question unresolved. We designed a new 32-channel infant magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coil and collected high-quality functional MRI (fMRI) data from infants (2-9 months of age) while they viewed stimuli from four conditions-faces, bodies, objects, and scenes. We find that infants have face-, scene-, and body-selective responses in the location of the adult FFA, PPA, and EBA, respectively, powerfully constraining accounts of cortical development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heather L Kosakowski
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Michael A Cohen
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Amherst College, 220 South Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Atsushi Takahashi
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Boris Keil
- Institute of Medical Physics and Radiation Protection, Department of Life Science Engineering, Mittelhessen University of Applied Science, Giessen, Germany
| | - Nancy Kanwisher
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Rebecca Saxe
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA
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Kobayashi M, Kanazawa S, Yamaguchi MK, O'Toole AJ. Cortical processing of dynamic bodies in the superior occipito-temporal regions of the infants' brain: Difference from dynamic faces and inversion effect. Neuroimage 2021; 244:118598. [PMID: 34587515 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118598] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2021] [Revised: 09/15/2021] [Accepted: 09/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous functional neuroimaging studies imply a crucial role of the superior temporal regions (e.g., superior temporal sulcus: STS) for processing of dynamic faces and bodies. However, little is known about the cortical processing of moving faces and bodies in infancy. The current study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to directly compare cortical hemodynamic responses to dynamic faces (videos of approaching people with blurred bodies) and dynamic bodies (videos of approaching people with blurred faces) in infants' brain. We also examined the body-inversion effect in 5- to 8-month-old infants using hemodynamic responses as a measure. We found significant brain activity for the dynamic faces and bodies in the superior area of bilateral temporal cortices in both 5- to 6-month-old and 7- to 8-month-old infants. The hemodynamic responses to dynamic faces occurred across a broader area of cortex in 7- to 8-month-olds than in 5- to 6-month-olds, but we did not find a developmental change for dynamic bodies. There was no significant activation when the stimuli were presented upside down, indicating that these activation patterns did not result from the low-level visual properties of dynamic faces and bodies. Additionally, we found that the superior temporal regions showed a body inversion effect in infants aged over 5 months: the upright dynamic body stimuli induced stronger activation compared to the inverted stimuli. The most important contribution of the present study is that we identified cortical areas responsive to dynamic bodies and faces in two groups of infants (5-6-months and 7-8-months of age) and we found different developmental trends for the processing of bodies and faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Megumi Kobayashi
- Department of Functioning and Disability, Institute for Developmental Research, Aichi Developmental Disability Center, Japan.
| | - So Kanazawa
- Department of Psychology, Japan Women's University, Japan
| | | | - Alice J O'Toole
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, USA
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Lu HS, Mintz TH. Learning non-adjacent rules and non-adjacent dependencies from human actions in 9-month-old infants. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0252959. [PMID: 34106999 PMCID: PMC8189460 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2020] [Accepted: 05/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Seven month old infants can learn simple repetition patterns, such as we-fo-we, and generalize the rules to sequences of new syllables, such as ga-ti-ga. However, repetition rule learning in visual sequences seems more challenging, leading some researchers to claim that this type of rule learning applies preferentially to communicative stimuli. Here we demonstrate that 9-month-old infants can learn repetition rules in sequences of non-communicative dynamic human actions. We also show that when primed with these non-adjacent repetition patterns, infants can learn non-adjacent dependencies that involve memorizing the dependencies between specific human actions-patterns that prior research has shown to be difficult for infants in the visual domain and in speech. We discuss several possible mechanisms that account for the apparent advantage stimuli involving human action sequences has over other kinds of stimuli in supporting non-adjacent dependency learning. We also discuss possible implications for theories of language acquisition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helen Shiyang Lu
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States of America
- * E-mail: (HSL); (THM)
| | - Toben H. Mintz
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States of America
- Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States of America
- * E-mail: (HSL); (THM)
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Grossmann T. Developmental Origins of the Pathway for Social Perception. Trends Cogn Sci 2021; 25:546-547. [PMID: 33741276 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2021] [Revised: 02/24/2021] [Accepted: 03/01/2021] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Tobias Grossmann
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
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Lisboa IC, Miguel H, Sampaio A, Mouta S, Santos JA, Pereira AF. Right STS responses to biological motion in infancy - An fNIRS study using point-light walkers. Neuropsychologia 2020; 149:107668. [PMID: 33137357 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107668] [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: 09/27/2019] [Revised: 09/11/2020] [Accepted: 10/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Biological motion perception-our capacity to perceive the intrinsic motion of humans and animals-has been implicated as a precursor of social development in infancy. In the adult brain, several biological motion neural correlates have been identified; of particular importance, the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (rpSTS). We present a study, conducted with fNIRS, which measured brain activations in infants' right posterior temporal region to point-light walkers, a standard stimulus category of biological motion perception studies. Seven-month-old infants (n = 23) participated in a within-subject blocked design with three experimental conditions and one baseline. Infants viewed: an intact upright point-light walker of a person approaching the observer; the same point-light walker stimulus but inverted; and a selected frame from the point-light walker stimulus, approaching the viewer at constant velocity with no articulated motion, close to object motion. We found activations for both the upright and the inverted point-light walkers. The rigid moving point-light walker frame did not elicit any response consistent with a functional activation in this region. Our results suggest that biological motion is processed differently in the right middle posterior temporal cortex in infancy, and that articulated motion is a critical feature in biological motion processing at this early age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabel C Lisboa
- CiPsi, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
| | - Helga Miguel
- Section on Analytical and Functional Biophotonics, Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Imaging, and Behavioral Development, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, USA.
| | - Adriana Sampaio
- CiPsi, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
| | - Sandra Mouta
- Centre for Computer Graphics, Guimarães, Portugal.
| | - Jorge A Santos
- Centre for Computer Graphics, Guimarães, Portugal; Algoritmi, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal; School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
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Esposito G, Rigo P, Bornstein MH. Brain imaging technologies to study infant behavior and development. Infant Behav Dev 2020; 60:101461. [DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101461] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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