EEG imaging of toddlers during dyadic turn-taking: Mu-rhythm modulation while producing or observing social actions.
Contemporary active-EEG and EEG-imaging methods show particular promise for studying the development of action planning and social-action representation in infancy and early childhood. Action-related mu suppression was measured in eleven 3-year-old children and their mothers during a 'live,' largely unscripted social interaction. High-density EEG was recorded from children and synchronized with motion-captured records of children's and mothers' hand actions, and with video recordings. Independent Component Analysis (ICA) was used to separate brain and non-brain source signals in toddlers' EEG records. EEG source dynamics were compared across three kinds of epochs: toddlers' own actions (execution), mothers' actions (observation), and between-turn intervals (no action). Mu (6-9Hz) power was suppressed in left and right somatomotor cortex during both action execution and observation, as reflected by independent components of individual children's EEG data. These mu rhythm components were accompanied by beta-harmonic (~16Hz) suppression, similar to findings from adults. The toddlers' power spectrum and scalp density projections provide converging evidence of adult-like mu-suppression features. Mu-suppression components' source locations were modeled using an age-specific 4-layer forward head model. Putative sources clustered around somatosensory cortex, near the hand/arm region. The results demonstrate that action-locked, event-related EEG dynamics can be measured, and source-resolved, from toddlers during social interactions with relatively unrestricted social behaviors.
Department of Psychology, School of Education, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, PR China; Department of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr. Univ. CA, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0515, USA; Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr. Univ. CA, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0559, USA. Electronic address: yliao@suda.edu.cn.
Yu
Y
Liao
Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr. Univ. CA, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0559, USA.
Zeynep Akalin
ZA
Acar
Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr. Univ. CA, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0559, USA.
Scott
S
Makeig
Department of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr. Univ. CA, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0515, USA.
Gedeon
G
Deak
D000328:Adult; D001132:Arm / Q000294:innervation; D001611:Beta Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006225:Hand / Q000294:innervation; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D059906:Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology