RESEARCH ARTICLE
Mapping cortical rhythms to infant behavioral tendencies via baseline EEG and parent-report
Sammy Perone,
Maria A. Gartstein,
Corresponding Author
Sammy Perone
Department of Human Development, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
Correspondence
Sammy Perone, 515 Johnson Tower, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99163.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorMaria A. Gartstein
Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
Search for more papers by this authorSammy Perone,
Maria A. Gartstein,
Corresponding Author
Sammy Perone
Department of Human Development, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
Correspondence
Sammy Perone, 515 Johnson Tower, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99163.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorMaria A. Gartstein
Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
Search for more papers by this authorData Availability Statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Abstract
An important goal of developmental science is to understand how the early organization of the brain and behavioral tendencies are interconnected. A foundational step in pursuit of this goal is to identify brain-behavior relations. Much progress has been made identifying such relations during infancy by linking baseline electroencephalography (EEG) activity to infants’ performance in lab-based measures of socio-emotional and cognitive development. Parent-report represents another resource in expanding our understanding to infants’ behavioral tendencies in their natural environment. The current study explored how parent-report of 6- to 12-month-old (N = 53) infants’ attention and regulatory abilities relates to cortical activity. The results confirmed one key hypothesis that lower levels of theta and higher levels of beta and gamma over the frontal region would be related to infants’ attentional abilities. These results are consistent with the extant baseline EEG literature. Cuddliness was robustly related to higher levels of theta and lower levels of beta over the posterior, likely reflecting infants’ tendency to use another person to self-regulate. Our results indicate links between these cortical rhythms and attention and regulatory processes have infant origins. Our results indicate furture research investigating brain-behavior relations using parent-report is warranted.
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