The relations between frontal brain electrical activity and cognitive development during infancy.
The relations between changes in the scalp-recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) and the development of the ability to perform successfully 2 cognitive tasks attributed to frontal lobe functioning were examined in 13 infants from 7 to 12 months of age. Infants successful in performing the A-not-B task with increasingly longer delays across the second half of the first year of life showed changes in power in scalp-recorded brain electrical activity in the frontal region and an increase in anterior/posterior EEG coherence. Infants with rapid mastery of object retrieval did not differ in frontal EEG development from infants who exhibited the normal developmental progression in object retrieval performance. In a task examining inhibition of reaching to a novel toy, there were no differences in frontal EEG as a function of performance. Results from a cross-sectional sample revealed similar findings. These data confirm work with nonhuman primates on the importance of maturation of frontal cortex in the successful performance on certain tasks (A-not-B), but do not confirm nonhuman primate data on the importance of frontal cortex for other tasks (object retrieval). The data also suggest that the electroencephalogram may be useful as a noninvasive measure of central nervous system development during the first year of life.
Bell
M A
MA
Department of Human Development, University of Maryland, College Park 20742.
Fox
N A
NA
D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D002652:Child Behavior; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010988:Play and Playthings; D011340:Problem Solving; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis