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Colomer M, Zacharaki K, Sebastian-Galles N. Selective Action Prediction in Infancy Depending on Linguistic Cues: An EEG and Eyetracker Study. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e1301232024. [PMID: 38418219 PMCID: PMC10993032 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1301-23.2024] [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: 07/12/2023] [Revised: 02/10/2024] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Humans' capacity to predict actions and to socially categorize individuals is at the basis of social cognition. Such capacities emerge in early infancy. By 6 months of age, infants predict others' reaching actions considering others' epistemic state. At a similar age, infants are biased to attend to and interact with more familiar individuals, considering adult-like social categories such as the language people speak. We report that these two core processes are interrelated early on in infancy. In a belief-based action prediction task, 6-month-old infants (males and females) presented with a native speaker generated online predictions about the agent's actions, as revealed by the activation of participants' sensorimotor areas before the agent's movement. However, infants who were presented with a foreign speaker did not recruit their motor system before the agent's action. The eyetracker analysis provided further evidence that linguistic group familiarity influences how infants predict others' actions, as only infants presented with a native speaker modified their attention to the stimuli as a function of the agent's forthcoming behavior. The current findings suggest that infants' emerging capacity to predict others' actions is modulated by social cues, such as others' linguistic group. A facilitation to predict and encode the actions of native speakers relative to foreign speakers may explain, in part, why infants preferentially attend to, imitate, and learn from the actions of native speakers.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Colomer
- Center for Brain and Cognition (CBC), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona 08018, Spain
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
| | - K Zacharaki
- Center for Brain and Cognition (CBC), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona 08018, Spain
| | - N Sebastian-Galles
- Center for Brain and Cognition (CBC), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona 08018, Spain
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Meyer M, Brezack N, Woodward AL. Neural correlates involved in perspective-taking in early childhood. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2024; 66:101366. [PMID: 38507857 PMCID: PMC10965458 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101366] [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: 03/15/2023] [Revised: 12/07/2023] [Accepted: 03/13/2024] [Indexed: 03/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Learning to consider another person's perspective is pivotal in early social development. Still, little is known about the neural underpinnings involved in perspective-taking in early childhood. In this EEG study, we examined 4-year-old children's brain activity during a live, social interaction that involved perspective-taking. Children were asked to pass one of two toys to another person. To decide which toy to pass, they had to consider either their partner's perspective (perspective-taking) or visual features unrelated to their partner's perspective (control). We analyzed power changes in midfrontal and temporal-parietal EEG channels. The results indicated that children showed higher power around 7 Hz at right temporal-parietal channels for perspective-taking compared to control trials. This power difference was positively correlated with children's perspective-taking performance, specifically for trials in which they needed to pass the toy their partner could not see. A similar power difference at right temporal-parietal channels was seen when comparing perspective-taking trials where children's visual access mismatched rather than matched that of their partner. No differences were detected for midfrontal channels. In sum, we identified distinct neural activity as 4-year-olds considered another person's perspective in a live interaction; this activity converges with neural findings of adults' social processing network.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Meyer
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, the Netherlands.
| | - N Brezack
- WestEd, Learning & Technology, San Francisco, USA
| | - A L Woodward
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, USA
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Jia S, Meng Y, Gao Y, Ao L, Yang L, Wang H, Liu Y. Romantic relationships attenuated competition between lovers: evidence from brain synchronization. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae028. [PMID: 38300221 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2023] [Revised: 01/12/2024] [Accepted: 01/15/2024] [Indexed: 02/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Competition is an essential component of social interaction and is influenced by interpersonal relationships. This study is based on social exchange theory and explores the relationship between brain synchronization and competition in the binary system of romantic relationships through electroencephalogram hyperscanning technology. The results found that females had a greater win rate in the romantic and friend groups. During the early stage (0-200 ms), when the competitive target appeared, the stranger group exhibited greater interbrain synchronicity in the Alpha frequency band. However, during the later stage (600-800 ms), the romantic group showed higher Alpha band interbrain synchrony when the competitive target appeared. Significant interbrain synchronizations were observed in the Theta frequency band of the stranger and friend groups at 400-600 ms and 800-1000 ms. Moreover, these interbrain synchronizations were significantly positively correlated with the winning rates of females in the competition. These findings suggest a close relationship between interpersonal coordination and interbrain synchronization. Furthermore, romantic relationships reduce participants' willingness to compete, affecting their attention regulation, emotional processing, and goal orientation, thus influencing competition. This study investigated the impact of romantic relationships on competition, providing a theoretical foundation for promoting the positive and healthy development of romantic relationships.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuyu Jia
- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai avenue, Caofeidian district, Tangshan, Hebei province, China
| | - Yujia Meng
- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai avenue, Caofeidian district, Tangshan, Hebei province, China
| | - Yuan Gao
- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai avenue, Caofeidian district, Tangshan, Hebei province, China
| | - Lihong Ao
- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai avenue, Caofeidian district, Tangshan, Hebei province, China
| | - Lei Yang
- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai avenue, Caofeidian district, Tangshan, Hebei province, China
| | - He Wang
- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai avenue, Caofeidian district, Tangshan, Hebei province, China
- School of Public Health, School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai avenue, Caofeidian district, Tangshan, Hebei province, China
| | - Yingjie Liu
- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai avenue, Caofeidian district, Tangshan, Hebei province, China
- School of Public Health, School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai avenue, Caofeidian district, Tangshan, Hebei province, China
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Köster M, Meyer M. Down and up! Does the mu rhythm index a gating mechanism in the developing motor system? Dev Cogn Neurosci 2023; 60:101239. [PMID: 37030147 PMCID: PMC10113759 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101239] [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: 09/19/2022] [Revised: 03/20/2023] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 04/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Developmental research on action processing in the motor cortex relies on a key neural marker - a decrease in 6-12 Hz activity (coined mu suppression). However, recent evidence points towards an increase in mu power, specific for the observation of others' actions. Complementing the findings on mu suppression, this raises the critical question for the functional role of the mu rhythm in the developing motor system. We here discuss a potential solution to this seeming controversy by suggesting a gating function of the mu rhythm: A decrease in mu power may index the facilitation, while an increase may index the inhibition of motor processes, which are critical during action observation. This account may advance our conception of action understanding in early brain development and points towards critical directions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Moritz Köster
- University of Regensburg, Institute of Psychology, Sedanstraße 1, 93055 Regensburg, Germany.
| | - Marlene Meyer
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, USA.
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