Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Educational Development & Training, Centre for Teaching and Learning, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Neuropsychologia. 2019 Mar 18;126:20-26. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.03.030. Epub 2017 Apr 5.
Reliable measures are required to draw meaningful conclusions regarding developmental changes in longitudinal studies. Little is known, however, about the test-retest reliability of face-sensitive event related potentials (ERPs), a frequently used neural measure in infants. The aim of the current study is to investigate the test-retest reliability of ERPs typically evoked by faces in 9-10 month-old infants. The infants (N=31) were presented with neutral, fearful and happy faces that contained only the lower or higher spatial frequency information. They were tested twice within two weeks. The present results show that the test-retest reliability of the face-sensitive ERP components is moderate (P400 and Nc) to substantial (N290). However, there is low test-retest reliability for the effects of the specific experimental manipulations (i.e. emotion and spatial frequency) on the face-sensitive ERPs. To conclude, in infants the face-sensitive ERP components (i.e. N290, P400 and Nc) show adequate test-retest reliability, but not the effects of emotion and spatial frequency on these ERP components. We propose that further research focuses on investigating elements that might increase the test-retest reliability, as adequate test-retest reliability is necessary to draw meaningful conclusions on individual developmental trajectories of the face-sensitive ERPs in infants.
需要可靠的测量方法来从纵向研究中得出关于发育变化的有意义的结论。然而，对于常用于婴儿的面部敏感事件相关电位（ERP）的测试-重测信度，人们知之甚少。本研究旨在探讨 9-10 个月大婴儿面部诱发的 ERP 的测试-重测信度。研究中，共有 31 名婴儿（N=31）接受中性、恐惧和快乐的面孔刺激，这些面孔只包含较低或较高的空间频率信息。他们在两周内接受两次测试。本研究结果表明，面部敏感 ERP 成分的测试-重测信度为中等（P400 和 Nc）至较大（N290）。然而，特定实验操作（即情绪和空间频率）对面部敏感 ERP 的影响的测试-重测信度较低。总之，在婴儿中，面部敏感 ERP 成分（即 N290、P400 和 Nc）表现出足够的测试-重测信度，但情绪和空间频率对面部敏感 ERP 的影响则不然。我们建议进一步研究可以提高测试-重测信度的因素，因为只有具有足够的测试-重测信度，才能从婴儿面部敏感 ERP 的个体发育轨迹中得出有意义的结论。
