Olfactory-to-visual facilitation in the infant brain declines gradually from 4 to 12 months.

ABSTRACT: During infancy, intersensory facilitation declines gradually as unisensory perception develops. However, this trade-off was mainly investigated using audiovisual stimulations. Here, fifty 4- to 12-month-old infants (26 females, predominately White) were tested in 2017-2020 to determine whether the facilitating effect of their mother's body odor on neural face categorization, as previously observed at 4 months, decreases with age. In a baseline odor context, the results revealed a face-selective electroencephalographic response that increases and changes qualitatively between 4 and 12 months, marking improved face categorization. At the same time, the benefit of adding maternal odor fades with age (R ² = .31), indicating an inverse relation with the amplitude of the visual respon

SUBMITTER: Rekow D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11579641 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature