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Updated: Jul 17, 2026
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Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
Developmental changes in neural activity to familiar words and gestures
Elizabeth A Sheehan1, Laura L Namy, Debra L Mills
1Department of Psychology, Emory University, 532 N. Kilgo Circle, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. elizabeth.sheehan@emory.edu
Brain and Language
|January 26, 2007
Summary
Infants initially perceive words and gestures similarly, but by 26 months, their brains process them differently, showing unique semantic development for gestures.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Neuroscience
- Linguistics
Background:
- Infants under 20 months often equate spoken words and symbolic gestures with object names.
- As development progresses, words and gestures acquire distinct communicative roles.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate developmental changes in how infants' brains process words versus symbolic gestures.
- To identify neurobiological markers of semantic processing shifts in early childhood.
Main Methods:
- Recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in typically developing 18- and 26-month-old infants.
- Utilized a match/mismatch task involving pictures, words, and gestures.
Main Results:
- At 18 months, infants showed an N400 mismatch effect for both words and gestures.
- By 26 months, the N400 effect was observed only for words, not gestures.
Conclusions:
- This study presents the first neurobiological evidence of developmental changes in semantic processing of gestures.
- Infants' brains show a divergence in processing symbolic gestures compared to words as they mature.
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