Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 HR Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 HR Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2021 Apr;204:105039. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.105039. Epub 2020 Dec 16.
Did I make that sound? Differentiating whether sensory events are caused by us or the environment is pivotal for our sense of agency. Adults can predict the sensory effects of their actions, which results in attenuated processing of self-produced events compared with externally generated events. Yet, little is known about whether young infants predict and discriminate self-produced events from externally produced events. Using electroencephalography (EEG), 3-month-olds' neural response to the same audiovisual stimulus was compared between a Self-produced condition and externally generated conditions with predictable timing (External-Regular) and irregular timing (External-Irregular). We hypothesized that if 3-month-olds predict self-produced events, their event-related potentials should be smallest for the Self-produced condition, strongest for the External-Irregular condition, and in between for the External-Regular condition. Cluster-based permutation tests indicated a more positive deflection (300-470 ms) for irregular stimuli compared with regular stimuli over the vertex. Contrasting the Self-produced and External-Irregular conditions showed a statistical trend within the same time window. Although not fully conclusive, this might suggest the emerging differentiation between self-produced and less predictable external events. However, there was no statistical evidence that infants differentiated self-produced events from temporally predictable external events. Our findings shed light on the emerging sense of agency and suggest that 3-month-olds are transitioning toward predicting and discriminating the consequences of their actions.
我发出那个声音了吗？区分感觉事件是由我们自己还是环境引起的，对我们的主体感至关重要。成年人可以预测自己行为的感觉效果，这导致与外部产生的事件相比，自我产生的事件的处理减弱。然而，对于幼儿是否能够预测和区分自我产生的事件与外部产生的事件，我们知之甚少。本研究使用脑电图（EEG），在自我产生条件和外部产生条件（可预测时间的外部规则条件和不规则时间的外部不规则条件）下，比较了 3 个月大婴儿对相同视听刺激的神经反应。我们假设如果 3 个月大的婴儿预测自我产生的事件，那么他们的事件相关电位（ERP）对于自我产生的条件应该最小，对于外部不规则的条件应该最大，而对于外部规则的条件则在两者之间。基于聚类的置换检验表明，与规则刺激相比，不规则刺激在顶点处产生更正向的偏转（300-470 毫秒）。对比自我产生和外部不规则条件在同一时间窗口内显示出统计趋势。尽管不是完全结论性的，但这可能表明自我产生的事件和不太可预测的外部事件之间正在出现分化。然而，没有统计学证据表明婴儿能够区分自我产生的事件和时间上可预测的外部事件。我们的发现揭示了主体感的出现，并表明 3 个月大的婴儿正在过渡到预测和区分自己行为的后果。
