TY - JOUR
T1 - Infant brain activity while viewing facial movement of point-light displays as measured by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)
AU - Ichikawa, Hiroko
AU - Kanazawa, So
AU - Yamaguchi, Masami K.
AU - Kakigi, Ryusuke
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by PRESTO (Japan Science and Technology Agency) and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (20119002, 21243041) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Copyright:
Copyright 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2010/9
Y1 - 2010/9
N2 - Adult observers can quickly identify specific actions performed by an invisible actor from the points of lights attached to the actor's head and major joints. Infants are also sensitive to biological motion and prefer to see it depicted by a dynamic point-light display [1]. In detecting biological motion such as whole body and facial movements, neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the involvement of the occipitotemporal cortex, including the superior temporal sulcus (STS) [15]. In the present study, we used the point-light display technique and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to examine infant brain activity while viewing facial biological motion depicted in a point-light display.Dynamic facial point-light displays (PLD) were made from video recordings of three actors making a facial expression of surprise in a dark room. As in Bassili's study [2], about 80 luminous markers were scattered over the surface of the actor's faces.In the experiment, we measured infant's hemodynamic responses to these displays using NIRS. We hypothesized that infants would show different neural activity for upright and inverted PLD. The responses were compared to the baseline activation during the presentation of individual still images, which were frames extracted from the dynamic PLD. We found that the concentration of oxy-Hb increased in the right temporal area during the presentation of the upright PLD compared to that of the baseline period. This is the first study to demonstrate that infant's brain activity in face processing is induced only by the motion cue of facial movement depicted by dynamic PLD.
AB - Adult observers can quickly identify specific actions performed by an invisible actor from the points of lights attached to the actor's head and major joints. Infants are also sensitive to biological motion and prefer to see it depicted by a dynamic point-light display [1]. In detecting biological motion such as whole body and facial movements, neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the involvement of the occipitotemporal cortex, including the superior temporal sulcus (STS) [15]. In the present study, we used the point-light display technique and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to examine infant brain activity while viewing facial biological motion depicted in a point-light display.Dynamic facial point-light displays (PLD) were made from video recordings of three actors making a facial expression of surprise in a dark room. As in Bassili's study [2], about 80 luminous markers were scattered over the surface of the actor's faces.In the experiment, we measured infant's hemodynamic responses to these displays using NIRS. We hypothesized that infants would show different neural activity for upright and inverted PLD. The responses were compared to the baseline activation during the presentation of individual still images, which were frames extracted from the dynamic PLD. We found that the concentration of oxy-Hb increased in the right temporal area during the presentation of the upright PLD compared to that of the baseline period. This is the first study to demonstrate that infant's brain activity in face processing is induced only by the motion cue of facial movement depicted by dynamic PLD.
KW - Facial movement
KW - Infant brain activity
KW - NIRS
KW - Near-infrared spectroscopy
KW - Point-light display
KW - The right hemispheric dominance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77955771850&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neulet.2010.06.086
DO - 10.1016/j.neulet.2010.06.086
M3 - Article
C2 - 20609380
AN - SCOPUS:77955771850
SN - 0304-3940
VL - 482
SP - 90
EP - 94
JO - Neuroscience Letters
JF - Neuroscience Letters
IS - 2
ER -