Biology subjects

Gaffrey, M. S.

Publications and source records attributed to Gaffrey, M. S..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Infant EEG microstate dynamics relate to fine-grained patterns of infant attention during naturalistic play with caregivers

As infants grow, they develop greater attentional control during interactions with others, shifting from patterns of attention primarily driven by caregivers (exogenous) to those that are also self-directed (endogenous). The ability to endogenously control attention during infancy is thought to reflect ongoing brain development and is influenced by patterns of joint attention between infant and caregiver. However, whether measures of infant attentional control and caregiver behavior during infant-caregiver interactions relate to patterns of infant brain activity is unknown and key for informing developmental models of attentional control. Using data from 43 infant-caregiver dyads, we quantified patterns of visual attention with dyadic, head-mounted eye tracking during infant-caregiver play and associated them with the duration of infant EEG microstate D/4 measured during rest. Importantly, microstate D/4 is a scalp potential topography thought to reflect the organization and function of attention-related brain networks. We found that microstate D/4 associated positively with infant-led joint attention rate but did not associate with caregiver-led joint attention rate, suggesting that infants initiatives in joint attention during play may be critical for the neurobiological development of attentional control. Further, we found that microstate D/4 associated negatively with infant attention shifts rate and positively with infant sustained attention duration, suggesting that increased stability of microstate D/4 may reflect maturation of attentional control and its underlying neural substrates. Together, our findings provide novel insights into how infant attentional control abilities and infant-caregiver visual behavior during play are associated with the spatial and temporal dynamics of infant brain activity. Significance StatementThe ability to control attention endogenously during infancy has been associated with individual differences in future language skills and executive and self-regulatory functions. However, how the infant brain supports the development of attentional control is unknown. Using dyadic, head-mounted eye tracking during infant-caregiver play with toys and microstate analysis of infant EEG during resting state, we found associations between measures of attentional control and brain activity underlying attention-related brain networks. Specifically, our findings suggest that longer durations of EEG microstate D/4 may reflect the maturation of attention-related brain networks that support the development of infant attentional control. This is the first study to provide insight into the functional significance of microstate D/4 in relation to real-world behavior during infancy.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Electrical brain activations in young children during a probabilistic reward-learning task are associated with behavioral strategy

Both adults and children learn through feedback which environmental events and choices are associated with higher probability of reward, an ability thought to be supported by the development of fronto-striatal reward circuits. Recent developmental studies have applied computational models of reward learning to investigate such learning in children. However, tasks and measures effective for assaying the cascade of reward-learning neural processes in children have been limited. Using a child-version of a probabilistic reward-learning task while recording event-related-potential (ERP) measures of electrical brain activity, this study examined key processes of reward learning in preadolescents (8-12 years old; n=30), namely: (1) reward-feedback sensitivity, as measured by the early-latency, reward-related, frontal ERP positivity, (2) rapid attentional shifting of processing toward favored visual stimuli, as measured by the N2pc component, and (3) longer-latency attention-related responses to reward feedback as a function of behavioral strategies (i.e., Win-Stay-Lose-Shift), as measured by the central-parietal P300. Consistent with our prior work in adults, the behavioral findings indicate preadolescents can learn stimulus-reward outcome associations, but at varying levels of performance. Neurally, poor preadolescent learners (those with slower learning rates) showed greater reward-related positivity amplitudes relative to good learners, suggesting greater reward-feedback sensitivity. We also found attention shifting towards to-be-chosen stimuli, as evidenced by the N2pc, but not to more highly rewarded stimuli as we have observed in adults. Lastly, we found the behavioral learning strategy (i.e., Win-Stay-Lose-Shift) reflected by the feedback-elicited parietal P300. These findings provide novel insights into the key neural processes underlying reinforcement learning in preadolescents.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Sex differences in the neural processing of reward feedback in young children

Understanding whether sex-related differences in the associations between emotion negativity and reward processing are present in early childhood has the potential to critically inform the etiology and prevention of psychiatric disorders characterized by dysregulated negative affect. Previous research suggests that altered neural processing of reward is associated with elevated levels of negative affect in adolescents and that the patterns of these associations may show sex-related differences. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between negative affect and reward processing in young children and none have directly examined potential sex-related differences in this relationship during early childhood. The current study investigated potential sex-related differences in neural response to reward feedback using EEG and their sex-specific association with emotional negativity in 140 children 4-7 years of age. Children completed a developmentally appropriate reward processing task while EEG data was recorded. Temporospatial Principal Component Analysis was used to separate overlapping feedback-related ERP components, revealing that males had greater loss-related feedback negativity and gain- and loss-related P200 values than females. At the individual level, males also showed a negative correlation between emotional negativity scores and gain-related P200 amplitudes. In line with prior work in adults for sex differences in attentional biases to emotional stimuli, these results suggest that neural mechanisms leading to sex differences in abnormal development of emotional negativity may emerge during early childhood and grow in magnitude during adolescence.

neuroscience↗