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Prefrontal Function Engaging in External-Focused Attention in 5- to 6-Month-Old Infants: A Suggestion for Default

Mingdi Xu1, Eiichi Hoshino1, Kiyomi Yatabe2

  • 1Department of Psychology, Faculty of Letters, Keio UniversityYokohama, Japan; Center for Life-Span Development of Communication Skills, Keio UniversityYokohama, Japan.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
|January 26, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Five- to six-month-old infants show distinct prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity when viewing social stimuli. Infants preferred anime characters performing Peek-a-Boo, indicating a preference for salient visual features.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental neuroscience
  • Cognitive neuroscience
  • Infant brain development

Background:

  • The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a crucial role in cognitive functions.
  • Understanding early PFC development is key to comprehending cognitive and social abilities.
  • Infants' responses to social stimuli offer insights into emerging cognitive processes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate hemodynamic responses in the infant prefrontal cortex (PFC) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
  • To examine how visual stimuli varying in saliency and social value affect PFC activity in 5- to 6-month-old infants.
  • To correlate brain activity with behavioral measures like looking time.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized 22-channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure PFC hemodynamic responses in 19 Japanese infants (5-6 months old).
  • Infants viewed video clips of Peek-a-Boo (social signal) performed by an anime character (AC) or a human, and AC hand movements (non-social).
  • Simultaneously recorded behavioral data, including infant looking time.

Main Results:

  • fNIRS data indicated decreased hemodynamic responses in the PFC across stimuli, most notably in the medial PFC (MPFC) during AC Peek-a-Boo.
  • Dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) activity showed a more pronounced decrease with AC Peek-a-Boo compared to human Peek-a-Boo.
  • Behavioral results showed significantly longer looking times for AC Peek-a-Boo versus human Peek-a-Boo.

Conclusions:

  • Infants aged 5-6 months demonstrate a preference for stimuli with higher saliency, such as an anime character performing Peek-a-Boo.
  • These findings suggest that salient features are more effective in capturing infant attention.
  • The study hypothesizes the early emergence of dynamic medial PFC (part of the default mode network) function in infants, similar to adults.

Keywords:
attentiondefault mode network (DMN)fNIRSinfantprefrontal cortex (PFC)

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