Timing in the baby brain.
Ten-month-old infants and adults were tested in an auditory oddball paradigm in which 50-ms tones were separated by 1500 ms (standard interval) and occasionally 500 ms (deviant interval). Both infants and adults showed marked brain responses to the tone that followed a deviant inter-stimulus interval (ISI). Specifically, the timing-deviance event-related-potential (ERP) difference waves (deviant-ISI ERP minus standard-ISI ERP) yielded a significant, fronto-centrally distributed, mismatch negativity (MMN) in the latency range of 120-240 ms post-stimulus for infants and 110-210 ms for adults. A robust, longer latency, deviance-related positivity was also obtained for infants (330-520 ms), with a much smaller and later deviance-related positivity observed for adults (585-705 ms). These results suggest that the 10-month-old infant brain has already developed some of the same mechanisms as adults for detecting deviations in the timing of stimulus events.
Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Box 90999, Durham, NC 27708-0999, USA. brannon@duke.edu
Elizabeth M
EM
Brannon
Lauren Wolfe
LW
Roussel
Warren H
WH
Meck
Marty
M
Woldorff
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*