Longitudinal looming study in infants using high-density EEG

Abstract

A rapidly approaching object provides information about the object’s approach and how imminent a collision is. Prospective control when responding to a looming object approaching on a direct collision course was studied longitudinally in infants 3/4 and 11/12 months of age. Different characteristics of peak VEP activity from infants’ brain electrical recordings (EEG) were compared between the infants at these two different ages. The aim of this study was to find evidence for infant brain electrical responses coherent with a looming stimulus approaching the infant under three different accelerations. The results showed that there were differences in peak VEP activation with age. At the age of 3/4 months, infants showed peak VEP activation significantly later after the end of the looming sequence and VEP peaks with longer duration compared to when they were 11/12 months old.

One of the underlying causes of the developmental trend found in our study could be due to an increase in locomotor experience as infants grow older and become more mobile. More follow-up research is needed to investigate the relation between behavioral development and changes in brain activity associated with infants’ perception of looming motion.