Event-Related Potentials to Point-Light Displays of Human Actions in 5-month-old Infants

Five-month-old infants viewed point-light displays depicting the human actions of walking, kicking, throwing, and running. These actions were presented as upright canonical displays and spatially scrambled displays in which the global form of the action was disrupted. Significant differences were observed between event-related potential (ERP) waveforms to the canonical and scrambled displays at mid-parietal, lateral parietal, temporal, and occipital electrode sites. These differences were clearest at lateral parietal electrode sites (P7 and P8) where the scrambled stimuli elicited a more positive waveform than the canonical stimuli. The findings represent initial neurophysiological evidence that infants in the first half year of life are sensitive to disruptions in the human form, and provide a basis for further work on the neurocognitive developments associated with changes in young infants' perception of human motion.