Lloyd-Fox Sarah, Wu Rachel, Richards John E, Elwell Clare E, Johnson Mark H
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, Greater London WC1E 7HU, UK.
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
Cereb Cortex. 2015 Feb;25(2):289-97. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bht207. Epub 2013 Aug 23.
The extent to which perception and action share common neural processes is much debated in cognitive neuroscience. Taking a developmental approach to this issue allows us to assess whether perceptual processing develops in close association with the emergence of related action skills within the same individual. The current study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate the perception of human action in 4- to 6-month-old human infants. In addition, the infants' manual dexterity was assessed using the fine motor component of The Mullen Scales of Early Learning and an in-house developed Manual Dexterity task. Results show that the degree of cortical activation, within the posterior superior temporal sulcus--temporoparietal junction (pSTS-TPJ) region, to the perception of manual actions in individual infants correlates with their own level of fine motor skills. This association was not fully explained by either measures of global attention (i.e., looking time) or general developmental stage. This striking concordance between the emergence of motor skills and related perceptual processing within individuals is consistent with experience-related cortical specialization in the developing brain.
认知神经科学中，感知与行动在多大程度上共享共同的神经过程存在诸多争议。从发展的角度探讨这个问题，能让我们评估感知加工是否与同一个体内相关行动技能的出现紧密相关。本研究使用功能近红外光谱技术（fNIRS）来调查4至6个月大婴儿对人类动作的感知。此外，使用《早期学习穆伦量表》的精细运动部分和一项内部开发的手动灵巧任务来评估婴儿的手动灵巧性。结果显示，在个体婴儿中，后颞上沟-颞顶联合区（pSTS-TPJ）内对手动动作感知的皮层激活程度与其自身的精细运动技能水平相关。这种关联无法完全由整体注意力测量指标（即注视时间）或一般发育阶段来解释。个体中运动技能的出现与相关感知加工之间这种显著的一致性，与发育中大脑里与经验相关的皮层特化是一致的。
