PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Siying Xie
AU  - Stefanie Hoehl
AU  - Merle Moeskops
AU  - Ezgi Kayhan
AU  - Christian Kliesch
AU  - Bert Turtleton
AU  - Moritz Köster
AU  - Radoslaw M. Cichy
TI  - Visual category representations in the infant brain
AID  - 10.1101/2021.11.03.466293
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.11.03.466293
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/02/22/2021.11.03.466293.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/02/22/2021.11.03.466293.full
AB  - Visual categorization is a human core cognitive capacity1,2 that depends on the development of visual category representations in the infant brain3–7. However, the exact nature of infant visual category representations and their relationship to the corresponding adult form remains unknown8. Our results clarify the nature of visual category representations from electroencephalography (EEG) data in 6- to 8-month-old infants and their developmental trajectory towards adult maturity in the key characteristics of temporal dynamics2,9, representational format10–12, and spectral properties13,14. Temporal dynamics change from slowly emerging, developing representations in infants to quickly emerging, complex representations in adults. Despite those differences, infants and adults already partly share visual category representations. The format of infants’ representations is visual features of low to intermediate complexity, whereas adults’ representations also encode high complexity features. Theta band neural oscillations form the basis of visual category representations in infants, and these representations are shifted to the alpha/beta band in adults. Together, we reveal the developmental neural basis of visual categorization in humans, show how information transmission channels change in development, and demonstrate the power of advanced multivariate analysis techniques in infant EEG research for theory building in developmental cognitive science.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.