EEG Mu Rhythm Analysis of Infant Social Information Processing

 描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的研究集中在所有年龄的社会认知的一个中心问题-大脑如何编码他人的行动？这个问题是典型和非典型的基础（例如，自闭症谱系障碍; ASD）社会学习和行动感知的发展。答案被假设为存在于镜像神经元系统和脑电图μ节律中的大脑“神经镜像”特性。无论是在执行目标导向的动作时，还是在观察其他人执行同样的动作时，mu节律都会做出反应（mu节律去重复化; MRD）（Muthuaraswamy &约翰逊，2004）。这项研究的重点是婴儿大脑如何编码他人的行为。我们的主要目标是描述出生后1.5至6个月之间MRD的发展（在行动观察/执行期间）。尽管有越来越多的婴儿MRD文献，但该研究集中在较大的婴儿上，并且MRD的镜像特性的少数研究包括9个月以上的婴儿（索斯盖特等人，2009年），在文学上留下了巨大的空白。此外，对婴儿MRD发展的理解是有限的，因为研究使用了不同的年龄、方法和分析（Cuevas等人，2014年;马歇尔和梅尔佐夫，2011年，审查），这阻碍了直接比较跨年龄和跨研究的结果。我们的第二个目标是研究婴儿MRD的个体差异是否与其他方面的发展有关，包括运动，语言，模仿和社会情感发展。有证据表明（a）运动体验与mu反应性有关（货车Elk等人，（B）语文 理解和言语感知与成人的神经镜像活动有关（LeBel等人，2009，用于综述）;和（c）MRD的个体差异与患有ASD的成人和儿童的模仿技能相关（Bernier等人，2007年，2013年）。此外，社会学习理论上是服务于社会情感（例如，合作、通信）和认知（例如，获得运动技能、因果信息和工具使用技能）功能（马歇尔和梅尔佐夫，2011年），这些功能对于最佳行为和认知发展至关重要。我们将调查（a）影响MRD或与MRD相关的因素（面部与手动手势;运动技能）;（B）MRD的潜在用途 MRD作为社会信息处理和/或语言发展的指标;以及（c）MRD中与年龄相关的变化（6-9周; 6个月）。这些数据将是独特的，因为它们将是首次尝试（a）检查6周龄的MRD;（B）测试人类婴儿面部MRD;（c）纵向分析婴儿MRD发育;和（d）调查并发和预测婴儿MRD关联（即，运动、语言、社会情感、模仿技能）。我们 研究结果将对认知和社会发展理论以及婴儿期最佳MRD方法产生影响。这些结果也将为临床研究人员提供一个典型的发展参考，这可能是一个潜在的社会信息处理缺陷的早期神经指标（例如，ASD）和其他沟通障碍，将是明显的行为或语言指标之前。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research focuses on a central problem of social cognition for all ages-how does the brain encode others' actions? This problem underlies typical as well as atypical (e.g., autism spectrum disorder; ASD) development of social learning and action perception. The answer is hypothesized to lie in the brain's "neural mirroring" properties found in the mirror neuron system and the EEG mu rhythm. The mu rhythm responds (mu rhythm desynchronization; MRD) both when executing a goal-directed action and when observing someone else perform the same action (Muthukumaraswamy & Johnson, 2004). This research focuses on how the infant brain encodes others' actions. Our primary goal is to characterize the development of MRD (during action observation/execution) between 1.5 and 6 postnatal months. Although there is a growing infant MRD literature, this research has focused on older infants and the few studies of MRD's mirroring properties include infants 9 months and older (Southgate et al., 2009), leaving significant gaps in the literature. Further, understanding of infant MRD development is limited because studies have used different ages, methodologies, and analyses (Cuevas et al., 2014; Marshall & Meltzoff, 2011, for review), which impede direct comparisons of findings across ages and across studies. Our secondary goal is to examine whether individual differences in infant MRD are related to other aspects of development, including motor, language, imitation, and social-emotional development. There is evidence that (a) motor experience is related to mu reactivity (van Elk et al., 2008); (b) language comprehension and speech perception are related to neural mirroring activity in adults (LeBel et al., 2009, for review); and (c) individual differences in MRD are associated with imitation skills for adults and children with ASD (Bernier et al., 2007, 2013). Further, social learning is theorize to serve both socio-emotional (e.g., cooperation, communication) and cognitive (e.g., acquisition of motor skills, causal information, and tool-use skills) functions (Marshall & Meltzoff, 2011) tha are essential for optimal behavioral and cognitive development. We will investigate (a) factors that affect or are related to MRD (facial vs. manual gestures; motor skills); (b) the potential use of MRD as an indicator of social information processing and/or language development; and (c) age-related changes (6-9 weeks; 6 months) in MRD. These data will be unique because they will be the first attempt to (a) examine MRD in 6-week-olds; (b) test human infant facial MRD; (c) analyze infant MRD development longitudinally; and (d) investigate both concurrent and predictive infant MRD associations (i.e., motor, language, social-emotional, imitation skills). Our findings will have implications for theories of cognitive and social development as well as optimal MRD methodology during infancy. These results will also provide clinical researchers with a typically developing reference, which could potentially serve as an early neurological indicator of social information processing deficits (e.g., ASD) and other communicative disorders that would be apparent before behavioral or language indicators.