Hirai Masahiro, Hakuno Yoko
Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences, Graduate School of Informatics, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan; Center for Development of Advanced Medical Technology, Jichi Medical University, 3311-1 Yakushiji, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, 329-0498, Japan; Department of Pediatrics, Jichi Medical University, 3311-1 Yakushiji, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, 329-0498, Japan.
Center for Development of Advanced Medical Technology, Jichi Medical University, 3311-1 Yakushiji, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, 329-0498, Japan; Global Research Institute, Keio University, 2-15-45 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-8345, Japan; Japan Society for Promotion Science, Kojimachi Business Center Building, 5-3-1 Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-0083, Japan.
Neuropsychologia. 2022 Jun 6;170:108229. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108229. Epub 2022 Mar 29.
Understanding the actions of others is a fundamental and important skill for navigating our social world. A striking example of how our visual system is sensitive to others' actions is the phenomenon of biological motion (BM), in which the visual system encodes socially relevant information regarding action from as few as a dozen point-lights of motion. Previous studies have demonstrated that infants can discriminate between BM and other types of actions. However, there is a lack of electrophysiological evidence outlining the exact point of time within the first year of life when global structure-from-motion processing of BM emerges. We herein show a clear event-related potential (ERP) response related to the global structure-from-motion processing of a coherent human point-light walker in 6-month-old infants. We introduced a novel experimental paradigm composed of two stimuli phases to extract a single ERP component related to the global structure-from-motion processing of a coherent human point-light walker. Furthermore, we demonstrated that an enhanced single ERP component observed at approximately 482-586 ms following the onset of the stimulus of a coherent human point-light walker was larger than that of a spatially scrambled point-light walker in 6-month-old infants. These findings suggest that 6-month-old infants can process the global structure-from-motion information of a coherent human point-light walker, which may involve the posterior part of the superior temporal sulcus region. The current findings further refine the recently outlined developmental theory of BM processing.
理解他人的行为是我们在社交世界中立足的一项基本且重要的技能。我们的视觉系统对他人行为敏感的一个显著例子是生物运动（BM）现象，即视觉系统能够从仅十几个运动点光源中编码与行为相关的社会信息。先前的研究表明，婴儿能够区分生物运动和其他类型的行为。然而，缺乏电生理证据来明确在生命的第一年中，生物运动的整体运动结构处理何时出现的确切时间点。我们在此展示了6个月大婴儿中与连贯的人体点光源行走者的整体运动结构处理相关的明确的事件相关电位（ERP）反应。我们引入了一种由两个刺激阶段组成的新颖实验范式，以提取与连贯的人体点光源行走者的整体运动结构处理相关的单个ERP成分。此外，我们证明，在6个月大的婴儿中，在连贯的人体点光源行走者刺激开始后约482 - 586毫秒观察到的增强的单个ERP成分大于空间混乱的点光源行走者的ERP成分。这些发现表明，6个月大的婴儿能够处理连贯的人体点光源行走者的整体运动结构信息，这可能涉及颞上沟区域的后部。当前的发现进一步完善了最近概述的生物运动处理的发展理论。
