Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence: Data from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Development of structure and function in the infant brain: Implications for cognition, language and social behaviour

“…Comparisons were made between data collected on the first visit at which the child displayed object permanence and those collected on the visit just prior to the emergence of this skill. Baird et al (2002) found significant differences in the concentration of oxyhemoglobin and total hemoglobin levels in the frontal areas of the brain, with higher concentrations detected when infant first displayed object permanence. Higher levels of oxyhemoglobin are thought to reflect increases in metabolic rate and thus in neural activity, suggesting higher levels of neural activity in the frontal lobes of infants when the object permanence task is completed successfully.…”

“…Several noninvasive brain-imaging techniques are currently available for use with younger children and infants. These include dense array electroencephalography/event-related potentials (EEG/ ERPs) and near infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS), both of which have excellent temporal resolution for assessing function (e.g., Benasich et al, 2006;Baird et al, 2002), as well as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which provides good spatial localisation for investigating changes in brain structure (e.g., Als et al, 2004). In addition, an emerging technique, arterial spin labelling (ASL), uses MRI methodology to measure cerebral blood flow while the brain is at rest, without the need for contrast agents (Detre and Aslop, 1999;Alsop et al, 2000).…”

“…A not B studies with both macaque monkeys (Diamond and Goldman-Rakic, 1989) and human infants (Baird et al, 2002;Fox 1992,Diamond andGoldman-Rakic, 1989) have suggested that the maturation of the frontal lobes plays an important role in the development of this skill and, in particular, the ability to tolerate increasing delays between hiding the object and starting to search. Diamond and Goldman-Rakic (1989) found that macaque monkeys with lesions in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex performed poorly on an object permanence task with delays of more than 2-5 s, and that performance decreased to chance level with 10 s delays.…”

“…Baird et al (2002) employed a pioneering technique that permits imaging of cerebral blood flow: NIRS. NIRS data were collected from sites F3 and F4 over the left and right frontal areas of the brain while the infants performed an object permanence task over successive visits.…”

Spatiotemporal object continuity in human ventral visual cortex

“…Some studies have shown that neural processing does persist even when objects are invisible, as measured with single-unit recording (18,19), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (20,21), and near-infrared spectroscopy in infants (22). Other studies have demonstrated that the ways in which objects appear and disappear at occluding boundaries will impact whether they are seen to persist over time, as measured with electroencephalography (23) and fMRI (24).…”