Marshall Peter J, Reeb Bethany C, Fox Nathan A
Department of Psychology, Temple University, 1701 N. 13th St, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
Dev Sci. 2009 Jul;12(4):568-82. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00808.x.
Behavioral reactivity to novel stimuli in the first half-year of life has been identified as a key aspect of early temperament and a significant precursor of approach and withdrawal tendencies to novelty in later infancy and early childhood. The current study examines the neural signatures of reactivity to novel auditory stimuli in 9-month-old infants in relation to prior temperamental reactivity. On the basis of the assessment of behavioral reactivity scores at 4 months of age, infants were classified into groups of high negatively reactive and high positively reactive infants. Along with an unselected control group, these groups of temperamentally different infants were given a three-stimulus auditory oddball task at 9 months of age which employed frequent standard and infrequent deviant tones as well as a set of complex novel sounds. In comparison to high positively reactive and control infants, high negatively reactive infants displayed increased amplitude of a positive slow wave in the ERP response to deviant tones compared to standard tones. In contrast, high positively reactive infants showed a larger novelty P3 to the complex novel sounds. Results are discussed in terms of optimal levels of novelty for temperamentally different infants.
生命前半年对新异刺激的行为反应性已被确定为早期气质的一个关键方面，也是后期婴儿期和幼儿期对新异事物趋近和退缩倾向的一个重要先兆。本研究考察了9个月大婴儿对新异听觉刺激的反应性的神经特征，并将其与先前的气质反应性联系起来。基于对4个月大婴儿行为反应性得分的评估，婴儿被分为高负反应性婴儿组和高正反应性婴儿组。除了一个未经过挑选的对照组外，这些气质不同的婴儿组在9个月大时接受了一项三刺激听觉oddball任务，该任务使用频繁出现的标准音和不频繁出现的偏差音以及一组复杂的新异声音。与高正反应性婴儿和对照组婴儿相比，高负反应性婴儿在对偏差音与标准音的ERP反应中，正慢波的振幅增加。相反，高正反应性婴儿对复杂新异声音表现出更大的新奇P3。研究结果从气质不同的婴儿的最佳新奇水平方面进行了讨论。
