Hold on Tight! Linking Emotions and Actions in the Infant Brain

Abstract

By the end of the first year, infants use others' emotions to interpret events, integrate social cues and build expectations on how people should behave (e.g., through social referencing). Yet, little is known about the neural correlates of linking others' emotions to following actions. This priming study investigates 10-month-old infants' electrophysiological responses to happy and disgusted emotional displays toward novel objects (prime) and subsequent actions (pushing away or pulling objects closer; target). Event-related potentials from 30 infants showed neural responses associated with emotional processing of the prime, such as heightened attentional response (Nc) and greater cognitive processing (Pc) in response to happiness over disgust. The target action of pushing away objects elicited increased slow wave activity when following happiness. Additionally, a significant mu-rhythm desynchronization, indicating motor resonance, was observed for pulling objects closer when preceded by happiness. Theta activity was higher for pushing away objects, indexing this as an unexpected event. These findings indicate that by 10 months, infants attend to emotional cues and use these cues to form predictions about subsequent actions. These neural correlates of bridging emotions and actions before 12 months of life reveal early neural sensitivity for processing social cues in complex contexts.