Using Novel Neural Measures to Explore the Development of Infant Attention Bias to Threat

Attention bias to threat is considered an adaptive cognitive phenomenon that is associated with developmental and psychopathological outcomes across the lifespan. However, investigations into the development of attention bias to threat in infancy have produced mixed results. Steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) provide a robust measure of visual cortex processing and attention by capturing brain entrainment to the rhythmic flicker of visual stimuli. This investigation leveraged a novel ssVEP task to examine attention bias to threat via affective expressions and its changes with age within the first two years of life. Infants (N = 118, Mean age = 9.21 months; Range age = 3-22 months; 57.61% Female) viewed a series of affective face pairs (neutral with happy, fearful, or angry) in which one face flickered at 6 Hz and the other at 7.5 Hz, while their brain activity was measured with EEG. Infants’ frequency-tagged brain responses were larger to fearful faces, above all other expressions, consistent with the presence of an attention bias to threat in infancy. Affect-biased attention did not change with age. Furthermore, the presence of an attention bias toward fear was found prior to the literature-suggested age of seven months. This study demonstrated the utility of using a robust and novel measure of attention, ssVEPs, to examine attention bias to threat and its development during infancy.