Neural noise limitations on infant visual sensitivity

Visual contrast sensitivity is poor in newborn human infants, but improves rapidly to approach adult levels by 8 months of age1,2,3,4,5. During this period, infant sensitivity can be limited by physical factors affecting photon capture, such as eye size and photoreceptor density6,7. Here we show that infant visual sensitivity is also limited by high levels of noise in the neural transduction process. Using a non-invasive electrophysiological measurement8,9,10 and a visual noise titration technique11, we have found that intrinsic neural noise in neonates is approximately nine times higher than in adults. As intrinsic neural noise decreases during infancy, contrast sensitivity improves proportionally, suggesting that neural noise places critical limits on contrast sensitivity throughout development. Moreover, contrast gain control12, an inhibitory process that adjusts visual responses to changing stimulation, is in place and operating in infants as young as 6 weeks of age, in spite of high levels of neural noise and significant immaturities in contrast sensitivity. The contrast gain control that we observed in human neonates may serve as a building block for more complex forms of visual inhibition, which develop later in infancy13.