Dynamics of the attentional blink in preverbal infants.
François Leroy, Shruti Naik, Rasa Gulbinaite, Marie Palu, Demian Battaglia, Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America March 10, 2026 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2526752123 (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractFour-month-old infants can focus attention strongly enough to temporarily miss a subsequent interesting stimulus, a phenomenon called attentional blink that in adults reflects a serial processing bottleneck for conscious access. Infants viewed a central teddy bear followed by a lateralized face at varying delays. They missed the face at the shortest delay (400 ms), detected it at 800 ms only when it appeared in the left visual field, and required 1,200 ms for detection in the right visual field, indicating hemispheric asymmetry. Trial-by-trial measures showed that deeper engagement with the first target predicted missing the second, supporting the presence of a global workspace in early infancy with slower dynamics.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | 4-month-old infants |
| Keywords | EEG Attention Consciousness Eye-tracking Infant |
| Key finding | Infants exhibit attentional blink with slower temporal dynamics and hemispheric asymmetry in face processing, supporting a global workspace in early infancy. |
Abstract
In the first months postterm, human infants are traditionally viewed as passive to their environment, unable to focus or sustain attention on specific objects. Here, we asked whether 4-mo-old infants could engage their attention strongly enough in a visual task to block the perception of a subsequent interesting stimulus-a phenomenon known as attentional blink, which in adults reflects a serial processing bottleneck for accessing a central workspace. We presented three successive visual events: a central teddy bear (T1) followed by a lateralized face and scrambled face (T2) at varying stimulus onset asynchrony (SOAs: 400, 800, and 1,200 ms), then the same face reappeared after 1,600 ms (T3). We monitored saccades toward the face, pupil size, and electroencephalic (EEG) responses to the flickering background. Our behavioral and EEG results showed that infants missed the lateralized face at the shortest SOA (400 ms). At 800 ms, detection occurred only when the face appeared in the left hemifield, while detection in the right hemifield required 1,200 ms, suggesting a hemispheric asymmetry in face processing. Furthermore, at SOAs where T2 should be visible, a trial-by-trial metric based on event-related variability revealed that the depth of attentional engagement to T1 predicted access to T2, despite identical visual input. These findings support the presence of a global workspace in early infancy, though with slower dynamics.