DOI: 10.5176/2251-1865_CBP15.07
Authors: Desmond Agboada, Audrey van der Meer and Ruud van der Weel
Abstract:
Infants’ cortical electrical activity as a function of audiovisual looming perception was investigated using high-density electroencephalogram (EEG). Fourteen infants between the ages of 3 and 4 months participated in the study. Analysis was performed on all EEG trials in which a looming-related VEP or AEP peak was detected. Results indicated that infants significantly showed earlier looming-related brain responses to the auditory loom than to the visual loom. Furthermore, infants significantly showed looming-related brain responses closer to contact for the faster looms, but no differences in the duration of looming-related VEP and AEP peak responses were detected. When the looming-related peaks at channels Oz (vision) and Cz (audition) were compared, peaks at occipital channel Oz were significantly higher in amplitude for all three loom speeds. In conclusion, it was suggested that audiovisual integration was heavily influenced by infants’ spatial attention captured by the visual loom, which resulted in looming-related VEPs that occurred relatively late in the looming sequence. Infants’ response asymmetry was also suggested to represent an evolutionary bias for survival which prioritizes an early auditory response over that of the visual in audiovisual looming perception.
Keywords: Electroencephalography, audiovisual looming, visual evoked potentials, auditory evoked potentials, multisensory integration
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