Ní Choisdealbha Áine, Westermann Gert, Reid Vincent
School of Psychology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
Infancy. 2025 May-Jun;30(3):e70026. doi: 10.1111/infa.70026.
Grasping is a fundamental skill that enables people to interface with and explore objects around them. The emergence of precision (thumb-to-forefinger) grasping during infancy represents a developmental shift in this skill and has been linked to more advanced action perception, particularly in detecting action incongruencies. In this study, ERPs known to be elicited in response to action were studied in 9- and 11.5-month-old infants as they watched whole-hand and precision grasping actions congruent or incongruent with a target object. Components related to attentional (Nc, P400) and semantic (N400) processes were examined to determine whether infants' perception of grasp is based on attention and recognition, on higher-level representations of action, or a mix of these two levels of processing. Effects of congruence were found for the P400 and the N400. The P400 effect was greater among the older age group. Infants' ability to produce a precision grip did not significantly affect their ERPs in response to actors' incongruent versus congruent grasps, which would have been expected if recognition of incongruous grasping actions were based on motor experience. Results indicate that infant ERPs differ between grasps that are congruent or incongruent with the form of a target object via multiple cognitive processes.
抓握是一项基本技能，它使人们能够与周围的物体进行交互并探索它们。婴儿期精确（拇指对食指）抓握的出现代表了这项技能的发展转变，并且与更高级的动作感知有关，特别是在检测动作不一致方面。在这项研究中，研究人员对9个月和11.5个月大的婴儿在观看与目标物体一致或不一致的全手抓握和精确抓握动作时，已知会因动作而引发的事件相关电位（ERP）进行了研究。研究了与注意力（Nc、P400）和语义（N400）过程相关的成分，以确定婴儿对抓握的感知是基于注意力和识别、动作的高级表征，还是这两种处理水平的混合。发现P400和N400存在一致性效应。年龄较大的组中P400效应更大。婴儿产生精确抓握的能力对他们对动作执行者不一致与一致抓握的ERP反应没有显著影响，如果对不一致抓握动作的识别基于运动经验，情况本应如此。结果表明，婴儿的ERP在与目标物体形状一致或不一致的抓握之间通过多种认知过程存在差异。
