Charting development of ERP components on face-categorization: Results from a large longitudinal sample of infants

• DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100840
• Publication Date: 2020-08-16T05:39:22Z
• Authors: Renata Di Lorenzo; Carlijn van den B...; Chantal Kemner; Caroline Junge
• Keywords: Neurophysiology and neuropsychology; Male; QP351-495; 05 social sciences; Infant; Electroencephalography; ERPs; N290; Face; Face categorization; Longitudinal; Humans; Female; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; Longitudinal Studies; 10. No inequality; Infants; Evoked Potentials; Original Research

From infancy onwards, EEG is widely used to measure face-categorization, i.e. differential brain activity to faces versus non-face stimuli. Four ERP components likely signal infants' face-sensitivity but reflect different underlying mechanisms: the P1, N290, P400, Nc. We test whether these components reveal similar developmental patterns from early to late infancy, using a longitudinal dataset of 80 infants tested at 5 and 10 months. The P1, N290, and the Nc show face-categorization already in 5-months-olds, a pattern which did not change over time. Development is visible as increased amplitudes in all components, but similar for face and non-face stimuli. By using Markov models, we illustrate that there are differences in the distribution of individual trajectories of face-categorization components from 5 to 10 months. Whereas individual trajectories appear more varied for the Nc and the P1, the N290 reveals a more consistent pattern: a larger proportion of 5-month-olds shows the dominant group response; a larger proportion of 10-month-olds remains in this group, and larger proportions of the alternative trajectories from 5- to 10-month-olds move towards the dominant group. This is vital information when one wants to examine individual differences in infant ERPs related to face-categorization.