Neural Markers of Attention at 6 Months Associate With Later Attentional Control Performance.

ABSTRACT: Attentional control is key to the development of executive functions. Previous research indicates that individual differences in attentional control behaviour may be stable from 6 months. Here, we analyse electroencephalogram data collected from 59 6-month-olds to gain insights into the neural processes underlying attentional control in infancy. First, we examine the neural activity preceding distinct looking behaviours in an attentional control task at 6 months. Second, we test whether those neural markers show predictive associations to behavioural measures of attentional control (Freeze-Frame task) and executive function (A-not-B task) in the same infants at 9 months. Whilst our data do not show evidence that 6-9 Hz power is implicated in attentional control at 6 months, or that the P1 ERP component plays a role in our attentional control task, we do find evidence that corroborates and extends research linking 3-6 Hz power to attentional control. At the group level, frontal 3-6 Hz power recorded whilst looking to a central target before the onset of a peripheral distractor was greater during trials where infants subsequently looked to the distractor, compared with trials where they did not look. Higher 3-6 Hz power in trials where the infant did not look to a peripheral distractor was predictive of less distractibility at 9 months, and higher 3 Hz power in trials where infants did look to the distractor strengthened the predictive association from 6-month EEG to 9-month behaviour. We suggest 3-6 Hz activity may be sensitive to multiple processes, such as anticipatory attention, and the ability to maintain attention on a target.

SUBMITTER: Hendry A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12403191 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature