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.
Brannon
Elizabeth M
EM
Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Box 90999, Durham, NC 27708-0999, USA. brannon@duke.edu
Roussel
Lauren Wolfe
LW
Meck
Warren H
WH
Woldorff
Marty
M
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*