Relations between infants' emerging reach-grasp competence and event-related desynchronization in EEG

• Published in: Developmental science 2016-01, Vol.19 (1), p.50-62
• Main Authors: Cannon, Erin N., Simpson, Elizabeth A., Fox, Nathan A., Vanderwert, Ross E., Woodward, Amanda L., Ferrari, Pier F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Behavior - physiology; Brain - physiology; Brain Mapping - methods; Electroencephalography; Electroencephalography - methods; Female; Humans; Infant; Intention; Male; Motor Skills - physiology; Observation; Perception - physiology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology
• ISSN: 1363-755X; 1467-7687
• DOI: 10.1111/desc.12295

Recent reports of similar patterns of brain electrical activity (electroencephalogram: EEG) during action execution and observation, recorded from scalp locations over motor‐related regions in infants and adults, have raised the possibility that two foundational abilities – controlling one's own intentional actions and perceiving others’ actions – may be integrally related during ontogeny. However, to our knowledge, there are no published reports of the relations between developments in motor skill (i.e. recording actual motor skill performance) and EEG during both action execution and action observation. In the present study we collected EEG from 21 9‐month‐olds who were given opportunities to reach for toys and who also observed an experimenter reach for toys. Event‐related desynchronization (ERD) was computed from the EEG during the reaching events. We assessed infants’ reaching‐grasping competence, including reach latency, errors, preshaping of the hand, and bimanual reaches, and found that desynchronization recorded in scalp electrodes over motor‐related regions during action observation was associated with action competence during execution. Infants who were more competent reachers, compared to less competent reachers, exhibited greater ERD while observing reaching‐grasping. These results provide initial evidence for an early emerging neural system integrating one's own actions with the perception of others’ actions. A neural mirror system predicts that developments in infants' motor experience should be associated with the strength of EEG mu desynchronization during action observation.To explore this, 9‐month‐old infants reached for toys and observed an experimenter reaching for toys while EEG activity was recorded in the mu frequency band. We found greater mu desynchronization in scalp electrodes located over motor‐related regions during action observation was associated with greater reach‐grasp competence, suggesting an early emerging neural system integrating one's own actions with the perception of others' actions.