Introduction:

Neuroimaging studies in adults and children of school age have described the role of parietal and frontal cortices in orienting attention. However, this activity has not been reported in infants in the first year of life.

Objective:

To describe changes in cerebral oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) in the parietal and frontal cortex during a visual orienting attention task in infants at three different ages: 4, 8 and 12 months.

Material and methods:

Thirty-seven healthy infants were included. The neuroimaging technique of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used. The task consisted in the presentation of moving images appearing in the center, left and right of a computer monitor.

Results:

During the task, we found the highest HbO concentration in the right parietal and frontal cortices in all three age groups; the 12 months-old group showed also a higher concentration of HbO in the left parietal and frontal areas.

Conclusion:

In the three age groups, the right parietal and frontal cortices were more active during a visual orienting attention task. Infants at 12 months-old have better visual attention abilities, as in adulthood.