Previous behavioral work on the cognitive development of human infants has illuminated many aspects of the system that children use to adapt to their new world. However, relatively little is known about the neural activity that supports these new ways of thinking. With NSF support, Dr. Susan Hespos of Northwestern University will examine the development of perceptual and cognitive processing in infancy through the use of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). This technique, currently being implemented in a few laboratories around the world, allows the measurement of brain activation by means of the tiny amounts of light that pass through the skull. By amplifying this natural phenomenon, it is possible to measure brain activity safely and noninvasively, even with infants. NIRS will provide key information regarding the developmental trajectory of visual cognitive maturation. The localization of brain functions provided by NIRS will be verified by first testing the well-understood basic motor and sensory functions, and then moving on to more complicated issues regarding visual cognition. It is hoped that this progression will clarity the ambiguous results previous efforts have yielded on localization. The first of the extensions will be exploring the neural correlates of responding to familiar versus novel stimuli. Next, the neural development of object perception (discrimination of shapes, faces, size changes, orientation changes, categorization, etc.) will be studied.
Having a reliable and feasible method for studying the neural bases of behavior in infants will greatly facilitate the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience. This project will provide a new avenue for discovering developmental changes in brain activation during the first year of life. It has so far been difficult to study the neural correlates of higher-order cognitive processing in infants and how these interact with cognitive development. By mapping out the brain activity in typically developing infants, it will provide a baseline from which to examine individuals who are developing atypically. Clinical work on atypical development demonstrates that early diagnosis is generally of great benefit. Ultimately, NIRS imaging could be used for early diagnosis of language, motor, and/or visual disorders.
