Processing In Infants Research Articles

Distinctive aspects of metabolism and nutrition in infancy

Objectives: The effects of genes, the stage of development, and the environment on various metabolic processes in infancy are described. Some themes discussed cross these three boundaries. Conclusions: Certain substances not normally regarded as essential may become conditionally essential if their precursors are limited in the diet or, alternatively, if the processes of conversion are reduced in activity because of abnormal gene function, or developmental immaturity. Diet is a clear environmental influence but, because the nature of the diet is closely related to age, it is a developmental influence as well. Certain nutrients are followed from the diet, via the gut and intermediary metabolism through to individual tissues and the whole body. The relationships of diet, metabolism and brain function have attracted considerable investigation in recent years. In the right environment, with the correct genes, the processes of development will be smooth and without undue metabolic disturbance. Considerable variation can be accommodated within the elasticity of the systems, but some changes may lead to temporary, or even permanent, malfunction.

Information processing in infancy: Relationships with infant temperament and maternal behavior

Hospitalized infants >1 y old often require central venous catheters (CVC) for prolonged therapy. There are limited data describing the complication profile for this young population. The purpose of this study was to review outcomes associated with CVC insertion in this high-risk group and compare them to those in older children to develop directed quality improvement projects.Patients receiving their first CVC, a tunneled central line or port-a-cath, from 2007–2010 were included. Femoral, non-tunneled, and hemodialysis catheters were excluded. Patients aged 0–12.0 mo (infants) were compared with those 12.1–36 mo (toddlers). Complications (<30 d) included infection, malposition, malfunction, intraoperative, and the need for operative exchange. Statistical analysis included Student t-test, chi-square, and a Kaplan–Meier survival analysis.We identified 115 infants and 129 toddlers who underwent CVC insertion during the study period. Complication rates were higher in the infant group than in the toddler group, as was the operative exchange rate. Higher infection rates in the infant group appeared to contribute to the difference in early complications and exchange rates. A survival analysis indicated improved catheter duration in toddlers (P = 0.001).In this cohort study, infants had a higher early complication rate, mostly attributable to infection, than their older counterparts. This difference could be explained by increased use of a tunneled central line for daily total parented nutrition in infants with gastrointestinal anomalies, as opposed to port-a-cath for chemotherapy infusion in older children. These data have prompted a number of targeted quality improvement initiatives to address relevant complications in this infant population.

Holistic processing in infancy: Implications for theories of infantile amnesia

Holistic processing in infancy: Implications for theories of infantile amnesia

Contributions of experience to the development of musical processing in infancy.

Full-term infants' performance in detection of melodic alterations appeared to be influenced by perceptual experience from 6 months to 1 year of age, and an experiment with infants born prematurely supported the hypothesis that experience affects music processing in infancy. These findings suggest parallel developmental tendencies in the perception of music and speech that may reflect general acquisition of perceptual abilities for processing of complex auditory patterns. This acquisition may contribute to the cultural enfranchisement of infants through perceptual experience.

Pattern processing in infancy: Hemispheric differences in the processing of shape and location of visual components

The results of a previous study (Deruelle & de Schonen, 1991) suggested that in 4- to 10-month-old infants, the right hemisphere (RH) is unable to process a very schematic face component by component, whereas the left hemisphere (LH) is able to process components in this way. These results suggested that the LH may have an advantage in processing the components of “good form” patterns, and the RH may have an advantage in processing the location of the components forming patterns of this kind. The aim of this study was to test this assumption. Thirty-two 4- to 10-month-old infants were tested in a pattern recognition task with a separate visual field presentation technique. The results confirmed that different visual pattern processing modes are present early in life, and that they are controlled asymmetrically.

Activité intersubjective et processus coopératif dans la communication prélinguistique : fonctions du marquage ostensif expressif maternel

Affect conceived as a signal, is usually resolved through a social object, thereby creating the necessary conditions for the functioning of the intersubjective process, the foundation of all communication. The speaker takes advantage of the intersubjective process to construct a « model of his/her addressee » by producing hypotheses about his/her experience, current preoccupations, etc., i.e., about his/her affective-cognitive environment. Accordingly, mothers produce ostensive stimuli which can be identified by both partners, that is potentially likely to create a shared affective-cognitive environment. Henceforth, the mother's ostensive marks orient the infant's attention, guide the infant in processing the information presented. Ostensive marks may be expressive or impressive. The following hypotheses try to show that : the use of one or other modality of ostensive processes not only varies according to the child's stage of development but also to fluctuations in his/her state of comprehension. The results clearly demonstrate that the use o/expressive marking under difficult conditions of emission/reception, at all periods of infant development, is clear evidence of how mothers continuously adjust to the infant's processing capacity and to times of lesser availability for communication.

Prenatal Alcohol Exposure and Infant Information Processing Ability

403 black, inner-city infants born to women recruited prenatally on the basis of their alcohol consumption during pregnancy were assessed on a battery focusing on information processing and complexity of play. Prenatal alcohol exposure was not related to visual recognition memory or cross-modal transfer of information but was associated with longer fixation duration, a measure indicative of slower, less efficient information processing; lower scores on elicited play; and longer periods of toy exploration, possibly also due to slower cognitive processing. The effects on processing speed and elicited play were dose-dependent and not attributable to maternal depression, parental intellectual stimulation, other prenatal drug exposure, or postpartum maternal drinking. The processing speed deficit is consistent with deficits in older children prenatally exposed to alcohol; the present study is the first to identify slower cognitive processing in infancy and in tasks not dependent on motoric proficiency.

Categorical habituation to male and female faces: Gender schematic processing in infancy

Experiment 1 used an infant-controlled habituation procedure to assess 5-, 7-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants' ability to discriminate pictures of adult male and female faces categorically. The 9-and 12-month-old groups habituated to a series of male or female faces, generalized habituation to a new face of the same sex, and dishabituated when shown an opposite-sex face, showing discrimination of male and female faces as separate categories. Use of an individual criterion to determine which infants in each group showed this effect indicated that a proportion of infants at each age were capable of making the discrimination categorically. In Experiment 2, the stimuli were altered so that different groups of 12-month-olds saw men and women pictured with unisex clothing, the women pictured with short hair, or the women pictured with short hair and both sexes pictured with unisex clothing. Decrements in categorical responding were significant only when both hair and clothing were altered. Individually, a proportion of infants in each group demonstrated categorical recognition of male and female faces despite the changes in the stimuli. These findings indicate that by 1 year of age, infants have incipient categories for men and women, and that these categories may include information about sex-typical hair length and clothing styles.

Temporal auditory processing in infancy.

Annals of the New York Academy of SciencesVolume 682, Issue 1 p. 137-149 Temporal Auditory Processing in Infancy SANDRA E. TREHUB, SANDRA E. TREHUB Centre for Research in Human Development University of Toronto Erindale Campus Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 1C6Search for more papers by this author SANDRA E. TREHUB, SANDRA E. TREHUB Centre for Research in Human Development University of Toronto Erindale Campus Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 1C6Search for more papers by this author First published: June 1993 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1993.tb22965.xCitations: 3AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Citing Literature Volume682, Issue1Temporal Information Pressing in the Central Nervous System: Special Reference to Dyslexia and DysphasiaJune 1993Pages 137-149 RelatedInformation

Infants' Preference for the Predominant Stress Patterns of English Words

One critical aspect of language acquisition is the development of a lexicon that associates sounds and meanings; but developing a lexicon first requires that the infant segment utterances into individual words. How might the infant begin this process? The present study was designed to examine the potential role that sensitivity to predominant stress patterns of words might play in lexical development. In English, by far the majority of words have stressed (strong) initial syllables. Experiment 1 of our study demonstrated that by 9 months of age American infants listen significantly longer to words with strong/weak stress patterns than to words with weak/strong stress patterns. However, Experiment 2 showed that no significant preferences for the predominant stress pattern appear with 6-month-old infants, which suggests that the preference develops as a result of increasing familiarity with the prosodic features of the native language. In a third experiment, 9-month-olds showed a preference for strong/weak patterns even when the speech input was low-pass filtered, which suggests that their preference is specifically for the prosodic structure of the words. Together the results suggest that attention to predominant stress patterns in the native language may form an important part of the infant's process of developing a lexicon.

Visual information processing in infancy.

The author examined the construct validity of visual information processing in infancy (preference for novel visual targets) as a predictor of later neurological outcome. 104 infants with definite (N = 25), questionable (N = 27) or no evidence of neurological dysfunction (N = 52) were tested at three to seven months (corrected age). The mean novelty preference scores differed significantly between the three groups. These differences were not related to demographic data and still existed when the data were corrected for preterm birth and birthweight. These results support the hypothesis that visual information processing at three to seven months (corrected age) is a reflection of neurological intactness and may be useful in the clinical assessment of cortical function in infants.

Stages In The Development Of Communication With An Adult In The First Year Of Life

An infant's communication with an adult is the basis on which the child's mental development takes place. Hence, for proper organization of the educational process in infancy, knowledge of the role of communication with adults in a child's mental development and clear notions of the nature of this communication are necessary. The present article deals with the characteristics of the stages of development of communication in the first year of a child's life and their role in the child's mental development.

Emotion and Cognition in Infancy: Facial Expressions during Contingency Learning

Facial expressions of 4and 6-month-old infants were coded at several points during contingency learning and contrasted with those of control subjects. Many different emotional expressions were observed and distinctive patterns of expression characterised contingent but not control subjects. Results indicated that emotion and contingency learning are closely linked in young infants and support a model of emotion and cognition as interdependent processes. Facial behaviours during learning may be valuable in conceptualising the relationship between emotional and cognitive processes in infancy.

Information Processing (Hahituation) in Infancy and Stability in Cognitive Development

Habituation, the decrement in attention an infant pays to a familiar stimulus, is believed to signify, at least in part, the infant’s processing of information about the stimulus. Recent longitudinal study indicates that this type of information processing in infancy also significantly, if moderately, predicts mental status later in child development. In this paper, data and theory on individual differences and stability in mental development are evaluated with respect to the predictive validity of information-processing measures made near the beginning of postnatal life to normative indices of mental development and performance in childhood.

The concept of mourning and its roots in infancy

SUMMARY Since Freud's seminal paper ‘Mourning and Melancholia’, the term mourning has become a common psychoanalytic concept. As such, it carries many of its ordinary connotations relating to death and the endings encountered in everyday life. In addition, the term has acquired a more specialised meaning in which it is used to donote complex developmental processes in infancy. In this paper, I draw various distinctions between the events of endings and the mental processes — beliefs and feelings — associated with these events. I discuss the pivotal place occupied by the belief in reunion in mourning and some aspects of the distinction between separation and separateness. I point to the contexts other than conflict and pain in which a sense of separateness can develop. The literature on mourning necessarily focusses upon the pains of separation and separateness. A clinical example is given in which an infant's rocking is viewed as a compromise or ‘symptom’ of disordered mourning. The rocking is understood ...

Memory retrieval: a time-locked process in infancy.

Three-month-old infants learned to activate an overhead crib mobile by operant footkicking and received a visual reminder of the event (a "reactivation treatment") 2 weeks later, after forgetting had occurred. Subsequent manifestation of the association was a monotonic increasing function of time since the reactivation treatment, and performance of infants tested 8 hours after the remainder was related to the time spent sleeping in the interim (r = 0.75). These data demonstrate that normal retrieval is time-dependent. Moreover, individual data suggest that retrieval may be continuous rather than discontinuous.

Developmental changes in visual orienting behavior to featural versus structural information in the human infant.

Ten male infants, 3--4 months old, and 10 male infants, 6--7 months old, were habituated to a visual stimulus composed of both specific featural and structural information. After habituation, orienting magnitude (dishabituation) to changes in feature with structure controlled versus changes in structure with feature controlled was used as a means of measuring the infant's processing capacity. Results indicate that younger and older infants were habituated over the habituation trials but that younger and older infants differed significantly in dishabituation to changes in structure and feature information. The present findings support the hypothesis that feature and structure information are both independently important to visual processing in the human infant.

Hemispheric Specialization and Cognitive Development: Implications for Mathematics Education

Evidence is presented for hemisphere specialization of the two brain hemispheres: the left hemisphere specialized for logico-analytic tasks and the right hemisphere, visuo-spatial tasks. A hypothesis is put forth for the emergence of the specialization that suggests a shift from predominant right hemisphere processing in infancy to predominant left hemisphere processing in adulthood. Results of the studies reviewed suggest the emergence of concrete-operational thought as the left hemisphere becomes capable of processing logical tasks. Electroencephalography seems particularly useful in determining specialization and mapping changes in hemispheric asymmetry. Implications for school mathematics curriculum are presented.