title: Rhythmic neural activity indicates the contribution of attention and memory to the processing of occluded movements in 10-month-old infants.
abstract: Infants possess the remarkable capacity to perceive occluded movements as ongoing and coherent. Little is known about the neural mechanisms that enable internal representation of conspecifics' and inanimate objects' movements during visual occlusion. In this study, 10-month-old infants watched briefly occluded human and object movements. Prior to occlusion, continuous and distorted versions of the movement were shown. EEG recordings were used to assess neural activity assumed to relate to processes of attention (occipital alpha), memory (frontal theta), and sensorimotor simulation (central alpha) before, during, and after occlusion. Oscillatory activity was analyzed using an individualized data approach taking idiosyncrasies into account. Results for occipital alpha were consistent with infants' preference for attending to social stimuli. Furthermore, frontal theta activity was more pronounced when tracking distorted as opposed to continuous movement, and when maintaining object as opposed to human movement. Central alpha did not discriminate between experimental conditions. In sum, we conclude that observing occluded movements recruits processes of attention and memory which are modulated by stimulus and movement properties.
authors.affiliation: Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: bache@mpib-berlin.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Cathleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bache
authors.affiliation: Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: kopp@mpib-berlin.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kopp
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: anne.springer@unibas.ch.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Springer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: waltraud.stadler@tum.de.
authors.forename: Waltraud
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Stadler
authors.affiliation: Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: lindenberger@mpib-berlin.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Ulman
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Lindenberger
authors.affiliation: Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: werkle@mpib-berlin.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Werkle-Bergner
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement; D010775:Photic Stimulation
keywords: Action perception; Attention; EEG; Memory; Occlusion; Sensorimotor simulation