Interhemispheric communication of visual learning: a developmental study in 3-6-month old infants

Abstract

Infants aged 12-26 weeks (3-6 months) were presented with a visual category discrimination learning task (normal vs scrambled faces) in the right or left visual field. Once they had reached the learning criterion, they were tested for transfer to the untrained visual field in order to establish whether visual experience can be communicated to the opposite hemisphere. Transfer of learning was found to occur in infants aged 19-26 weeks but not in younger ones. Neural pathways possibly forming the channels for this communication are discussed.