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    Cortical activation to action perception is associated with action production abilities in young infants

    Lloyd-Fox, Sarah and Wu, Rachel and Richards, J.E. and Johnson, Mark H. and Elwell, Clare (2015) Cortical activation to action perception is associated with action production abilities in young infants. Cerebral Cortex 25 (2), pp. 289-297. ISSN 1047-3211.

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    Abstract

    The extent to which perception and action share common neural processes is much debated in cognitive neuroscience. Taking a developmental approach to this issue allows us to assess whether perceptual processing develops in close association with the emergence of related action skills within the same individual. The current study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate the perception of human action in 4- to 6-month-old human infants. In addition, the infants' manual dexterity was assessed using the fine motor component of The Mullen Scales of Early Learning and an in-house developed Manual Dexterity task. Results show that the degree of cortical activation, within the posterior superior temporal sulcus—temporoparietal junction (pSTS-TPJ) region, to the perception of manual actions in individual infants correlates with their own level of fine motor skills. This association was not fully explained by either measures of global attention (i.e., looking time) or general developmental stage. This striking concordance between the emergence of motor skills and related perceptual processing within individuals is consistent with experience-related cortical specialization in the developing brain.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): action, fNIRS, infancy, IPL, pSTS
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Research Centres and Institutes: Brain and Cognitive Development, Centre for (CBCD)
    Depositing User: Administrator
    Date Deposited: 02 Sep 2013 09:13
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:07
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/8072

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