Nine-month-old infants update their predictive models of a changing environment
- Humans generate internal models of their environment to predict events in the world. As the environments change, our brains adjust to these changes by updating their internal models. Here, we investigated whether and how 9-month-old infants differentially update their models to represent a dynamic environment. Infants observed a predictable sequence of stimuli, which were interrupted by two types of cues. Following the update cue, the pattern was altered, thus, infants were expected to update their predictions for the upcoming stimuli. Because the pattern remained the same after the no-update cue, no subsequent updating was required. Infants showed an amplified negative central (Nc) response when the predictable sequence was interrupted. Late components such as the PSW were also evoked in response to unexpected stimuli; however, we found no evidence for a differential response to the informational value of surprising cues at later stages of processing. Infants rather learned that surprising cues always signal a change in theHumans generate internal models of their environment to predict events in the world. As the environments change, our brains adjust to these changes by updating their internal models. Here, we investigated whether and how 9-month-old infants differentially update their models to represent a dynamic environment. Infants observed a predictable sequence of stimuli, which were interrupted by two types of cues. Following the update cue, the pattern was altered, thus, infants were expected to update their predictions for the upcoming stimuli. Because the pattern remained the same after the no-update cue, no subsequent updating was required. Infants showed an amplified negative central (Nc) response when the predictable sequence was interrupted. Late components such as the PSW were also evoked in response to unexpected stimuli; however, we found no evidence for a differential response to the informational value of surprising cues at later stages of processing. Infants rather learned that surprising cues always signal a change in the environment that requires updating. Interestingly, infants responded with an amplified neural response to the absence of an expected change, suggesting a top-down modulation of early sensory processing in infants. Our findings corroborate emerging evidence showing that infants build predictive models early in life.…
Author details: | Ezgi Kayhan WagnerORCiD, Marlene Meyer, J.X. O’Reilly, Sabine Hunnius, Harold Bekkering |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100680 |
ISSN: | 1878-9293 |
ISSN: | 1878-9307 |
Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31357079 |
Title of parent work (English): | Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience : a journal for cognitive, affective and social developmental neuroscience |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Place of publishing: | Amsterdam |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2019/07/10 |
Publication year: | 2019 |
Release date: | 2019/11/12 |
Tag: | Development; Event-Related potentials; Internal models; Predictive models; Predictive processing |
Volume: | 38 |
Number of pages: | 8 |
Funding institution: | Universität Potsdam |
Funding institution: | Medical Research CouncilMedical Research Council UK (MRC) [MR/L019639/1] |
Funding number: | PA 2019_76 |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät |
DDC classification: | 6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Grantor: | Publikationsfonds der Universität Potsdam |
Publishing method: | Open Access / Gold Open-Access |
DOAJ gelistet | |
License (German): | CC-BY-NC-ND - Namensnennung, nicht kommerziell, keine Bearbeitungen 4.0 International |
External remark: | Zweitveröffentlichung in der Schriftenreihe Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe ; 577 |