Human infants dissociate structural and dynamic information in biological motion: Evidence from neural systems

Vincent M Reid, Stefanie Hoehl, Jennifer Landt, Tricia Striano

Publications: Contribution to journalArticlePeer Reviewed

Abstract

This study investigates how human infants process and interpret human movement. Neural correlates to the perception of (i) possible biomechanical motion, (ii) impossible biomechanical motion and (iii) biomechanically possible motion but nonhuman 'corrupted' body schema were assessed in infants of 8 months. Analysis of event-related potentials resulting from the passive viewing of these point-light displays (PLDs) indicated a larger positive amplitude over parietal channels between 300 and 700 ms for observing biomechanically impossible PLDs when compared with other conditions. An early negative activation over frontal channels between 200 and 350 ms dissociated schematically impossible PLDs from other conditions. These results show that in infants, different cognitive systems underlie the processing of structural and dynamic features by 8 months of age.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)161-167
Number of pages7
JournalSocial Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
Volume3
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2008
Externally publishedYes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 501005 Developmental psychology

Keywords

  • Comprehension
  • Concept Formation
  • Discrimination (Psychology)
  • Evoked Potentials, Visual
  • Female
  • Frontal Lobe
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Motion Perception
  • Parietal Lobe
  • Reference Values
  • Social Perception
  • Journal Article
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

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