Infant Attention and Recognition Memory

描述（由申请人提供）：修正古怪范式被用于测量婴儿期与注意和识别记忆相关的ERP成分。婴儿熟悉两种刺激，然后暴露于三种记忆刺激的简短呈现：频繁熟悉，不常见熟悉和不常见的新奇。中潜伏期负ERP成分在中央导联上被标记为负中央（Nc），被认为反映了与注意相关的一般定向反应。研究发现，在出现新的刺激后，Nc的振幅更大。一种常用的识别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erp，因为在刺激之间的转换过程中会产生眼动伪影。本研究的一个目的是通过利用独立成分分析从脑电图数据中识别和去除眼动成分来检查成对比较试验中的婴儿erp。第二个目标是通过在修正古怪范式中嵌入成对比较试验来检验ERP组件与注意和识别记忆的行为相关之间的一致性。20、26和32周龄的婴儿将作为参与者。随着研究的进行，参与者将被暴露在成对比较试验和简短刺激演示的交替块中，以测量婴儿的视觉偏好。脑电图记录将用一个126通道系统和ERP平均值将在刺激开始前后的-50毫秒到2000毫秒进行短暂的刺激暴露，并在配对比较试验的持续时间内进行。研究结果可能阐明了婴儿注意和识别记忆的脑行为关系，并揭示了婴儿出生后第一年注意和识别记忆发展的典型过程。这是了解非典型人群注意力和识别记忆发展的第一步。

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.