Infant Attention and Recognition Memory

描述(申请人提供)：改进的古怪范例已被用来测量与婴儿期注意力和再认记忆相关的事件相关电位成分。婴儿熟悉两种刺激，然后接受三种类型的记忆刺激的简要介绍：常见的熟悉、不常见的熟悉和不常见的新奇。假设标记为负中央(NC)的中央导联上的中等潜伏期负ERP分量反映与注意相关的一般定向反应。研究发现，在新的刺激呈现后，NC的幅度更大。一种常用的再认记忆行为测量方法是比较两种视觉刺激的视觉配对比较选择试验。到目前为止，还没有研究在配对比较试验中测量ERPs，因为在刺激之间的转换过程中会产生眼动伪影。本研究的一个目标是通过利用独立成分分析从脑电数据中识别和去除眼动成分，在配对比较试验中检查婴儿的ERP。第二个目标是通过在改进的古怪范例中嵌入配对比较试验来检查事件相关电位成分与注意和再认记忆的行为关联之间的一致性。20、26和32周大的婴儿将作为参与者。参与者将接受交替进行的配对比较试验和简短的刺激演示，以测量婴儿在研究过程中的视觉偏好。脑电记录将使用126通道系统，在短暂的刺激暴露和配对比较试验期间，将在刺激开始前后-50毫秒至2000毫秒之间进行事件相关电位平均值。研究结果可能会澄清与婴儿注意力和再认记忆相关的大脑-行为关系，并阐明出生后第一年注意力和再认记忆发展的典型过程。这是了解非典型人群注意力和再认记忆发展的第一步。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The modified-oddball paradigm has been used to measure ERP components associated with attention and recognition memory in infancy. Infants are familiarized with 2 stimuli and then exposed to brief presentations of three types of memory stimuli: frequent familiar, infrequent familiar, and infrequent novel. A middle latency negative ERP component over central leads labeled Negative Central (Nc) is assumed to reflect a general orienting response associated with attention. The Nc has been found to be greater in amplitude following novel stimulus presentations. A commonly used behavioral measure of recognition memory is the visual paired-comparison choice trial comparing two visual stimuli. No study to date has measured ERPs during paired-comparison trials because of the eye-movement artifacts produced during shifts between stimuli. One goal of the present study is to examine infant ERPs during paired-comparison trials by utilizing independent component analysis to identify and remove eye-movement components from the EEG data. A second goal is to examine the consistency between ERP components and behavioral correlates of attention and recognition memory by embedding paired-comparison trials within the modified-oddball paradigm. Infants 20, 26, and 32 weeks of age will serve as participants. Participants will be exposed to alternating blocks of paired-comparison trials and brief stimulus presentations in order to measure the infants' visual preferences as the study progresses. Electroencephalographic recordings will be made with a 126-channel system and ERP averages will be made from -50 ms to 2000 ms around stimulus onset for brief stimulus exposures, and for the duration of the paired-comparison trials. Results may clarify brain-behavior relationships associated with infant attention and recognition memory, and shed light on the typical course of the development of attention and recognition memory across the first postnatal year. This is a first step toward understanding the development of attention and recogntion memory for atypical populations.