Facesensitive brain responses in the first year of life Abstract   Cortical areas in the ventral visual pathway become selectively tuned towards the processing of faces compared to nonface stimuli beginning around 3 months of age and continuing over the first year. Studies using eventrelated potentials in the EEG (ERPs) have found an ERP component, the N290, that displays specificity for human faces. Other components, such as the P1, P400, and Nc have been studied to a lesser degree in their responsiveness to human faces. However, little is known about the systematic changes in the neural responses to faces during the first year of life, and the localization of these responses in infantsxe2x80x99 brain. We examined ERP responses to pictures of faces and objects in infants from 4.5 months through 12 months in a crosssectional study. We investigated the activity of all the components reported to be involved in infant face processing, with particular interest to their amplitude variation and cortical localization. We identified neural regions responsible for the component through the application of cortical source localization methods. We found larger P1 and N290 responses to faces than objects, and these components were localized in the lingual and middleposterior fusiform gyri, respectively. The amplitude of the P400 was not differentially sensitive to faces over objects. The Nc component was different for faces and objects, was influenced by the infantxe2x80x99s attentional state, and localized in medialanterior brain areas. The implications of these results are discussed in the identification of developmental ERP precursors to face processing.

ERP markers are associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes in 1xe2x80x935 month old infants in rural Africa and the UK Abstract   Introduction  Infants and children in low and middleincome countries are frequently exposed to a range of povertyrelated risk factors, increasing their likelihood of poor neurodevelopmental outcomes. There is a need for culturally objective markers, which can be used to study infants from birth, thereby enabling early identification and ultimately intervention during a critical time of neurodevelopment.    Method  In this paper, we investigate developmental changes in auditory event related potentials (ERP) associated with habituation and novelty detection in infants between 1 and 5 months living in the United Kingdom and The Gambia, West Africa. Previous research reports that whereas newbornsxe2x80x99 ERP responses are increased when presented with stimuli of higher intensity, this sensory driven response decreases over the first few months of life, giving rise to a cognitively driven, noveltybased response. Anthropometric measures were obtained concurrently with the ERP measures at 1 and 5 months of age. Neurodevelopmental outcome was measured using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) at 5 months of age.    Results  The described developmental change was observed in the UK cohort, who exhibited an intensitybased response at 1 month and a noveltybased response at 5 months of age. This change was accompanied by greater habituation to stimulus intensity at 5 compared to 1 month. In the Gambian cohort we did not see a change from an intensityto a noveltybased response, and no change in habituation to stimulus intensity across the two age points. The degree of change from an intensity towards a noveltybased response was further found to be associated with MSEL scores at 5 months of infant age, whereas infantsxe2x80x99 growth between 1 and 5 months was not.    Discussion  Our study highlights the utility of ERPbased markers to study young infants in rural Africa. By implementing a wellestablished paradigm in a previously understudied population we have demonstrated its use as a culturally objective tool to better understand early learning in diverse settings worldwide. Results offer insight into the neurodevelopmental processes underpinning early neurocognitive development, which may in the future contribute to early identification of infants at heightened risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcome.