@article {5268, title = {Preliminary evidence for selective cortical responses to music in one-month-old infants}, journal = {Developmental Science}, year = {2023}, month = {03/2023}, abstract = {

Prior studies have observed selective neural responses in the adult human auditory cortex to music and speech that cannot be explained by the differing lower-level acoustic properties of these stimuli. Does infant cortex exhibit similarly selective responses to music and speech shortly after birth? To answer this question, we attempted to collect functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 45 sleeping infants (2.0- to 11.9-weeks-old) while they listened to monophonic instrumental lullabies and infant-directed speech produced by a mother. To match acoustic variation between music and speech sounds we (1) recorded music from instruments that had a similar spectral range as female infant-directed speech, (2) used a novel excitation-matching algorithm to match the cochleagrams of music and speech stimuli, and (3) synthesized {\textquotedblleft}model-matched{\textquotedblright} stimuli that were matched in spectrotemporal modulation statistics to (yet perceptually distinct from) music or speech. Of the 36 infants we collected usable data from, 19 had significant activations to sounds overall compared to scanner noise. From these infants, we observed a set of voxels in non-primary auditory cortex (NPAC) but not in Heschl{\textquoteright}s Gyrus that responded significantly more to music than to each of the other three stimulus types (but not significantly more strongly than to the background scanner noise). In contrast, our planned analyses did not reveal voxels in NPAC that responded more to speech than to model-matched speech, although other unplanned analyses did. These preliminary findings suggest that music selectivity arises within the first month of life.

}, keywords = {auditory cortex, fMRI, infants, music, speech}, issn = {1363-755X}, doi = {10.1111/desc.13387}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.13387}, author = {Heather L Kosakowski and Norman-Haignere, Samuel and Mynick, Anna and Takahashi, Atsushi and Saxe, Rebecca and Nancy Kanwisher} } @article {4980, title = {Selective responses to faces, scenes, and bodies in the ventral visual pathway of infants}, journal = {Current Biology}, volume = {32}, year = {2021}, month = {11/2021}, chapter = {1-20}, abstract = {

Three of the most robust functional landmarks in the human brain are the selective responses to faces in the fusiform face area (FFA), scenes in the parahippocampal place area (PPA), and bodies in the extrastriate body area (EBA). Are the selective responses of these regions present early in development or do they require many years to develop? Prior evidence leaves this question unresolved. We designed a new 32-channel infant magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coil and collected high-quality functional MRI (fMRI) data from infants (2{\textendash}9\ months of age) while they viewed stimuli from four conditions{\textemdash}faces, bodies, objects, and scenes. We find that infants have face-, scene-, and body-selective responses in the location of the adult FFA, PPA, and EBA, respectively, powerfully constraining accounts of cortical development.

}, doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2021.10.064}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982221015086}, author = {Heather L Kosakowski and Cohen, Michael A. and Takahashi, Atsushi and Keil, Boris and Nancy Kanwisher and Rebecca Saxe} } @article {4727, title = {Acute social isolation evokes midbrain craving responses similar to hunger}, journal = {Nature Neuroscience}, volume = {23}, year = {2020}, month = {11/2020}, pages = {1597 - 1605}, abstract = {

When people are forced to be isolated from each other, do they crave social interactions? To address this question, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure neural responses evoked by food and social cues after participants (n = 40) experienced 10 h of mandated fasting or total social isolation. After isolation, people felt lonely and craved social interaction. Midbrain regions showed selective activation to food cues after fasting and to social cues after isolation; these responses were correlated with self-reported craving. By contrast, striatal and cortical regions differentiated between craving food and craving social interaction. Across deprivation sessions, we found that deprivation narrows and focuses the brain{\textquoteright}s motivational responses to the deprived target. Our results support the intuitive idea that acute isolation causes social craving, similar to the way fasting causes hunger.

}, issn = {1097-6256}, doi = {10.1038/s41593-020-00742-z}, url = {http://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-020-00742-z}, author = {Tomova, Livia and Wang, Kimberly L. and Thompson, Todd and Matthews, Gillian A. and Takahashi, Atsushi and Tye, Kay M. and Rebecca Saxe} } @article {2568, title = {Organization of high-level visual cortex in human infants}, journal = {Nature Communications}, year = {2017}, month = {01/2017}, abstract = {

How much of the structure of the human mind and brain is already specified at birth, and how much arises from experience? In this article, we consider the test case of extrastriate visual cortex, where a highly systematic functional organization is present in virtually every normal adult, including regions preferring behaviourally significant stimulus categories, such as faces, bodies, and scenes. Novel methods were developed to scan awake infants with fMRI, while they viewed multiple categories of visual stimuli. Here we report that the visual cortex of 4{\textendash}6-month-old infants contains regions that respond preferentially to abstract categories (faces and scenes), with a spatial organization similar to adults. However, precise response profiles and patterns of activity across multiple visual categories differ between infants and adults. These results demonstrate that the large-scale organization of category preferences in visual cortex is adult-like within a few months after birth, but is subsequently refined through development.

}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms13995}, url = {http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/ncomms13995}, author = {Ben Deen and Richardson, Hilary and Dilks, Daniel D. and Takahashi, Atsushi and Keil, Boris and Lawrence Wald and Nancy Kanwisher and Rebecca Saxe} }