Inferences about infants' visual brain mechanisms.
We discuss hypotheses that link the measurements we can make with infants to inferences about their developing neural mechanisms. First, we examine evidence from the sensitivity to visual stimulus properties seen in infants' responses, using both electrophysiological measures (transient and steady-state recordings of visual evoked potentials/visual event-related potentials) and behavioral measures and compare this with the sensitivity of brain processes, known from data on mammalian neurophysiology and human neuroimaging. The evidence for multiple behavioral systems with different patterns of visual sensitivity is discussed. Second, we consider the analogies which can be made between infants' behavior and that of adults with identified brain damage, and extend these links to hypothesize about the brain basis of visual deficits in infants and children with developmental disorders. Last, we consider how these lines of data might allow us to form "inverse linking hypotheses" about infants' visual experience.
Department of Developmental Science, University College London, London, UK.
Janette
J
Atkinson
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Oliver
O
Braddick
D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*