Timing in the baby brain

Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 2004 Oct;21(2):227-33. doi: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.04.007.

Abstract

Ten-month-old infants and adults were tested in an auditory oddball paradigm in which 50-ms tones were separated by 1500 ms (standard interval) and occasionally 500 ms (deviant interval). Both infants and adults showed marked brain responses to the tone that followed a deviant inter-stimulus interval (ISI). Specifically, the timing-deviance event-related-potential (ERP) difference waves (deviant-ISI ERP minus standard-ISI ERP) yielded a significant, fronto-centrally distributed, mismatch negativity (MMN) in the latency range of 120-240 ms post-stimulus for infants and 110-210 ms for adults. A robust, longer latency, deviance-related positivity was also obtained for infants (330-520 ms), with a much smaller and later deviance-related positivity observed for adults (585-705 ms). These results suggest that the 10-month-old infant brain has already developed some of the same mechanisms as adults for detecting deviations in the timing of stimulus events.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation / methods
  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Brain / radiation effects
  • Brain Mapping*
  • Electroencephalography / methods
  • Evoked Potentials, Auditory / physiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Time Factors
  • Time Perception / physiology*