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Bress KS, Cascio CJ. Sensorimotor regulation of facial expression - An untouched frontier. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 162:105684. [PMID: 38710425 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2024] [Revised: 04/16/2024] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 05/08/2024]
Abstract
Facial expression is a critical form of nonverbal social communication which promotes emotional exchange and affiliation among humans. Facial expressions are generated via precise contraction of the facial muscles, guided by sensory feedback. While the neural pathways underlying facial motor control are well characterized in humans and primates, it remains unknown how tactile and proprioceptive information reaches these pathways to guide facial muscle contraction. Thus, despite the importance of facial expressions for social functioning, little is known about how they are generated as a unique sensorimotor behavior. In this review, we highlight current knowledge about sensory feedback from the face and how it is distinct from other body regions. We describe connectivity between the facial sensory and motor brain systems, and call attention to the other brain systems which influence facial expression behavior, including vision, gustation, emotion, and interoception. Finally, we petition for more research on the sensory basis of facial expressions, asserting that incomplete understanding of sensorimotor mechanisms is a barrier to addressing atypical facial expressivity in clinical populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberly S Bress
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
| | - Carissa J Cascio
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
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2
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Zeng G, Simpson EA, Paukner A. Maximizing valid eye-tracking data in human and macaque infants by optimizing calibration and adjusting areas of interest. Behav Res Methods 2024; 56:881-907. [PMID: 36890330 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-022-02056-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/24/2022] [Indexed: 03/10/2023]
Abstract
Remote eye tracking with automated corneal reflection provides insights into the emergence and development of cognitive, social, and emotional functions in human infants and non-human primates. However, because most eye-tracking systems were designed for use in human adults, the accuracy of eye-tracking data collected in other populations is unclear, as are potential approaches to minimize measurement error. For instance, data quality may differ across species or ages, which are necessary considerations for comparative and developmental studies. Here we examined how the calibration method and adjustments to areas of interest (AOIs) of the Tobii TX300 changed the mapping of fixations to AOIs in a cross-species longitudinal study. We tested humans (N = 119) at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 14 months of age and macaques (Macaca mulatta; N = 21) at 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and 6 months of age. In all groups, we found improvement in the proportion of AOI hits detected as the number of successful calibration points increased, suggesting calibration approaches with more points may be advantageous. Spatially enlarging and temporally prolonging AOIs increased the number of fixation-AOI mappings, suggesting improvements in capturing infants' gaze behaviors; however, these benefits varied across age groups and species, suggesting different parameters may be ideal, depending on the population studied. In sum, to maximize usable sessions and minimize measurement error, eye-tracking data collection and extraction approaches may need adjustments for the age groups and species studied. Doing so may make it easier to standardize and replicate eye-tracking research findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guangyu Zeng
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA
| | | | - Annika Paukner
- Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK
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3
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Lanfranco RC, Rabagliati H, Carmel D. The importance of awareness in face processing: A critical review of interocular suppression studies. Behav Brain Res 2023; 437:114116. [PMID: 36113728 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2022.114116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2021] [Revised: 08/15/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Human faces convey essential information for understanding others' mental states and intentions. The importance of faces in social interaction has prompted suggestions that some relevant facial features such as configural information, emotional expression, and gaze direction may promote preferential access to awareness. This evidence has predominantly come from interocular suppression studies, with the most common method being the Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression (bCFS) procedure, which measures the time it takes different stimuli to overcome interocular suppression. However, the procedures employed in such studies suffer from multiple methodological limitations. For example, they are unable to disentangle detection from identification processes, their results may be confounded by participants' response bias and decision criteria, they typically use small stimulus sets, and some of their results attributed to detecting high-level facial features (e.g., emotional expression) may be confounded by differences in low-level visual features (e.g., contrast, spatial frequency). In this article, we review the evidence from the bCFS procedure on whether relevant facial features promote access to awareness, discuss the main limitations of this very popular method, and propose strategies to address these issues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renzo C Lanfranco
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
| | - Hugh Rabagliati
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - David Carmel
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
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4
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Wacewicz S, Perea-García JO, Lewandowski Z, Danel DP. The adaptive significance of human scleral brightness: an experimental study. Sci Rep 2022; 12:20261. [PMID: 36424405 PMCID: PMC9691750 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-24403-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2022] [Accepted: 11/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Homogeneously depigmented sclerae have long been proposed to be uniquely human-an adaptation to enable cooperative behaviour by facilitating interpersonal coordination through gaze following. However, recent evidence has shown that deeply pigmented sclerae also afford gaze following if surrounding a bright iris. Furthermore, while current scleral depigmentation is clearly adaptive in modern humans, it is less clear how the evolutionarily intermediate stages of scleral pigmentation may have been adaptive. In sum, it is unclear why scleral depigmentation became the norm in humans, while not so in sister species like chimpanzees, or why some extant species display intermediate degrees of pigmentation (as our ancestors presumably did at some point). We created realistic facial images of 20 individually distinct hominins with diverse facial morphologies, each face in the (i) humanlike bright sclera and (ii) generalised apelike dark sclera version. Participants in two online studies rated the bright-sclera hominins as younger, healthier, more attractive and trustworthy, but less aggressive than the dark-sclera hominins. Our results support the idea that the appearance of more depigmented sclerae promoted perceived traits that fostered trust, increasing fitness for those individuals and resulting in depigmentation as a fixed trait in extant humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Slawomir Wacewicz
- Center for Language Evolution Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland.
| | - Juan Olvido Perea-García
- The Cognitive Psychology Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Zdzisław Lewandowski
- Department of Human Biology, Wroclaw University of Health and Sport Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Dariusz P Danel
- Department of Anthropology, Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland
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5
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Lanfranco RC, Stein T, Rabagliati H, Carmel D. Gaze direction and face orientation modulate perceptual sensitivity to faces under interocular suppression. Sci Rep 2022; 12:7640. [PMID: 35538138 PMCID: PMC9090921 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-11717-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2021] [Accepted: 04/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Faces convey information essential for social interaction. Their importance has prompted suggestions that some facial features may be processed unconsciously. Although some studies have provided empirical support for this idea, it remains unclear whether these findings were due to perceptual processing or to post-perceptual decisional factors. Evidence for unconscious processing of facial features has predominantly come from the Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression (b-CFS) paradigm, which measures the time it takes different stimuli to overcome interocular suppression. For example, previous studies have found that upright faces are reported faster than inverted faces, and direct-gaze faces are reported faster than averted-gaze faces. However, this procedure suffers from important problems: observers can decide how much information they receive before committing to a report, so their detection responses may be influenced by differences in decision criteria and by stimulus identification. Here, we developed a new procedure that uses predefined exposure durations, enabling independent measurement of perceptual sensitivity and decision criteria. We found higher detection sensitivity to both upright and direct-gaze (compared to inverted and averted-gaze) faces, with no effects on decisional factors. For identification, we found both greater sensitivity and more liberal criteria for upright faces. Our findings demonstrate that face orientation and gaze direction influence perceptual sensitivity, indicating that these facial features may be processed unconsciously.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renzo C Lanfranco
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
- Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
| | - Timo Stein
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Hugh Rabagliati
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - David Carmel
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
- School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
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6
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Abstract
Studies of visual perspective-taking have shown that adults can rapidly and accurately compute their own and other peoples’ viewpoints, but they experience difficulties when the two perspectives are inconsistent. We tested whether these egocentric (i.e., interference from one’s own perspective) and altercentric biases (i.e., interference from another person’s perspective) persist in ecologically valid complex environments. Participants (N = 150) completed a dot-probe visual perspective-taking task, in which they verified the number of discs in natural scenes containing real people, first only according to their own perspective and then judging both their own and another person’s perspective. Results showed that the other person’s perspective did not disrupt self perspective-taking judgements when the other perspective was not explicitly prompted. In contrast, egocentric and altercentric biases were found when participants were prompted to switch between self and other perspectives. These findings suggest that altercentric visual perspective-taking can be activated spontaneously in complex real-world contexts, but is subject to both top-down and bottom-up influences, including explicit prompts or salient visual stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paola Del Sette
- Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
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7
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Automatic gaze to the nose region cannot be inhibited during observation of facial expression in Eastern observers. Conscious Cogn 2021; 94:103179. [PMID: 34364139 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2021.103179] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2020] [Revised: 07/24/2021] [Accepted: 07/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Humans can extract a great deal of information about others very quickly. This is partly because the face automatically captures observers' attention. Specifically, the eyes can attract overt attention. Although it has been reported that not only the eyes but also the nose can capture initial oculomotor movement in Eastern observers, its generalizability remains unknown. In this study, we applied the "don't look" paradigm wherein participants are asked not to fixate on a specific facial region (i.e., eyes, nose, and mouth) during an emotion recognition task with upright (Experiment 1) and inverted (Experiment 2) faces. In both experiments, we found that participants were less able to inhibit the initial part of their fixations to the nose, which can be interpreted as the nose automatically capturing attention. Along with previous studies, our overt attention tends to be attracted by a part of the face, which is the nose region in Easterner observers.
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Damon F, Quinn PC, Pascalis O. When novelty prevails on familiarity: Visual biases for child versus infant faces in 3.5- to 12-month-olds. J Exp Child Psychol 2021; 210:105174. [PMID: 34144347 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2020] [Revised: 03/14/2021] [Accepted: 04/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The current study examined the influence of everyday perceptual experience with infant and child faces on the shaping of visual biases for faces in 3.5-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants. In Experiment 1, infants were presented with pairs of photographs of unfamiliar child and infant faces. Four groups with differential experience with infant and child faces were composed from parents' reports of daily exposure with infants and children (no experience, infant face experience, child face experience, and both infant and child face experience) to assess influence of experience on face preferences. Results showed that infants from all age groups displayed a bias for the novel category of faces in relation to their previous exposure to infant and child faces. In Experiment 2, this pattern of visual attention was reversed in infants presented with pictures of personally familiar child faces (i.e., older siblings) compared with unfamiliar infant faces, especially in older infants. These results suggest that allocation of attention for novelty can supersede familiarity biases for faces depending on experience and highlight that multiple factors drive infant visual behavior in responding to the social world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrice Damon
- Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, AgroSup Dijon, CNRS, INRAE, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, F-21000 Dijon, France.
| | - Paul C Quinn
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA
| | - Olivier Pascalis
- University of Grenoble Alpes, Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition, F-38000 Grenoble, France; Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition, CNRS, F-38000 Grenoble, France
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9
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Keenan B, Markant J. Differential sensitivity to species- and race-based information in the development of attention orienting and attention holding face biases in infancy. Dev Psychobiol 2020; 63:461-469. [PMID: 32803776 DOI: 10.1002/dev.22027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2020] [Revised: 07/25/2020] [Accepted: 07/30/2020] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Experience-based biases in face processing can reflect both attention orienting biases that support efficient selection of faces from competing stimuli and attention holding biases that allow for detailed encoding of selected faces. It is well established that infants demonstrate both species- and race-based biases in attention holding. Fewer studies have found species-based, but not race-based, orienting biases in infancy but these studies examined species- and race-based biases separately and measured overall orienting without examining attention to distractors. The present study directly compared 6- and 11-month-old infants' species- and race-based biases in attention holding and orienting to faces. We measured infants' duration of looking and frequency/speed of orienting to own-race, other-race, and monkey faces in multi-item search arrays, and their frequency of orienting to faces and distractors during search. Infants showed expected species- and race-based biases in attention holding but only a species-based bias in overall orienting. However, they also showed reduced orienting to salient distractors in the context of own-race faces. These results suggest that orienting mechanisms mediating face selection are robustly driven by species information while orienting to faces versus distractors during search may also reflect prior learning about frequently experienced own-race faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brianna Keenan
- Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
| | - Julie Markant
- Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.,Tulane Brain Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
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10
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Simpson EA, Maylott SE, Leonard K, Lazo RJ, Jakobsen KV. Face detection in infants and adults: Effects of orientation and color. J Exp Child Psychol 2019; 186:17-32. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2018] [Revised: 05/06/2019] [Accepted: 05/07/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
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Simpson EA, Maylott SE, Mitsven SG, Zeng G, Jakobsen KV. Face detection in 2- to 6-month-old infants is influenced by gaze direction and species. Dev Sci 2019; 23:e12902. [PMID: 31505079 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12902] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2018] [Revised: 07/10/2019] [Accepted: 08/30/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Humans detect faces efficiently from a young age. Face detection is critical for infants to identify and learn from relevant social stimuli in their environments. Faces with eye contact are an especially salient stimulus, and attention to the eyes in infancy is linked to the emergence of later sociality. Despite the importance of both of these early social skills-attending to faces and attending to the eyes-surprisingly little is known about how they interact. We used eye tracking to explore whether eye contact influences infants' face detection. Longitudinally, we examined 2-, 4-, and 6-month-olds' (N = 65) visual scanning of complex image arrays with human and animal faces varying in eye contact and head orientation. Across all ages, infants displayed superior detection of faces with eye contact; however, this effect varied as a function of species and head orientation. Infants were more attentive to human than animal faces and were more sensitive to eye and head orientation for human faces compared to animal faces. Unexpectedly, human faces with both averted heads and eyes received the most attention. This pattern may reflect the early emergence of gaze following-the ability to look where another individual looks-which begins to develop around this age. Infants may be especially interested in averted gaze faces, providing early scaffolding for joint attention. This study represents the first investigation to document infants' attention patterns to faces systematically varying in their attentional states. Together, these findings suggest that infants develop early, specialized functional conspecific face detection.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sarah E Maylott
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA
| | | | - Guangyu Zeng
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA
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12
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Al-Haddad C, Hoyeck S, Torbey J, Houry R, Boustany RMN. Eye Tracking Abnormalities in School-Aged Children With Strabismus and With and Without Amblyopia. J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus 2019; 56:297-304. [PMID: 31545863 DOI: 10.3928/01913913-20190726-01] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2019] [Accepted: 07/22/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE To detect eye tracking abnormalities in children with strabismus in the absence or presence of amblyopia. METHODS A total of 100 patients aged 7 to 17 years were enrolled prospectively for 2 years from the pediatric ophthalmology clinic of the American University of Beirut Medical Center: 50 children with strabismus (including 24 with amblyopia) and 50 age- and gender-matched controls. Eye tracking with different paradigms was performed. RESULTS Mean age was 10.66 ± 2.90 years in the strabismus group and 10.02 ± 2.75 years in the control group. Demographic characteristics were similar with respect to vision, gender, and refraction. Four paradigms were tested using the eye tracker: (1) distance/near paradigm: patients with strabismus showed a lower fixation count and longer fixation at both distances and a tendency for decreased latency and percentage of fixation in distant elements; (2) reading paradigm: the strabismus group had a higher fixation count and duration, especially those without amblyopia; (3) location identification paradigm: strabismus group without amblyopia fixated less and with shorter duration on the most flagrant element; and (4) video paradigm: no differences in eye movements were noted. CONCLUSIONS Significant eye movement deficits were demonstrated in patients with strabismus compared to controls while reading text and identifying prominent elements in a crowded photograph. This was significant in the non-amblyopic subgroup. [J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus. 2019;56(5):297-304.].
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13
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Abstract
The influence of arousal on visual attention was examined in 6.5-month-old infants (N = 42) in the context of a visual search task. Phasic increases in arousal were induced with brief sounds and measured with pupil dilation. Evidence was found for an inverted U-shaped relation between pupil dilation amplitude and visual orienting, with highest likelihood of a target fixation at intermediate levels of arousal. Effects were similar for facial stimuli and simple objects. Together, these results contribute to our understanding of the relation between arousal and attention in infancy. The study also demonstrates that infants have a bias to orient to human eyes, even when presented in isolation.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Terje Falck‐Ytter
- Uppsala University
- Karolinska Institutet
- Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies (SCAS)
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14
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Kim AJ, Anderson BA. Neural correlates of attentional capture by stimuli previously associated with social reward. Cogn Neurosci 2019; 11:5-15. [PMID: 30784353 DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2019.1585338] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Our attention is strongly influenced by reward learning. Stimuli previously associated with monetary reward have been shown to automatically capture attention in both behavioral and neurophysiological studies. Stimuli previously associated with positive social feedback similarly capture attention; however, it is unknown whether such social facilitation of attention relies on similar or dissociable neural systems. Here, we used the value-driven attentional capture paradigm in an fMRI study to identify the neural correlates of attention to stimuli previously associated with social reward. The results reveal learning-dependent priority signals in the contralateral visual cortex, posterior parietal cortex, and caudate tail, similar to studies using monetary reward. An additional priority signal was consistently evident in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG). Our findings support the notion of a common neural mechanism for directing attention on the basis of selection history that generalizes across different types of reward.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andy J Kim
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
| | - Brian A Anderson
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
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15
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Thompson SJ, Foulsham T, Leekam SR, Jones CR. Attention to the face is characterised by a difficult to inhibit first fixation to the eyes. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2019; 193:229-238. [PMID: 30690268 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.01.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2018] [Revised: 12/21/2018] [Accepted: 01/07/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022] Open
Abstract
The eyes are preferentially attended over other facial features and recent evidence suggests this bias is difficult to suppress. To further examine the automatic and volitional nature of this bias for eye information, we used a novel prompting face recognition paradigm in 41 adults and measured the location of their first fixations, overall dwell time and behavioural responses. First, patterns of eye gaze were measured during a free-viewing forced choice face recognition paradigm. Second, the task was repeated but with prompts to look to either the eyes or the mouth. Participants showed significantly more first fixations to the eyes than mouth, both when prompted to look at the eyes and when prompted to look at the mouth. The pattern of looking to the eyes when prompted was indistinguishable from the unprompted condition in which participants were free to look where they chose. Notably, the dwell time data demonstrated that the eye bias did not persist over the entire presentation period. Our results suggest a difficult-to-inhibit bias to initially orient to the eyes, which is superseded by volitional, top-down control of eye gaze. Further, the amount of looking to the eyes is at a maximum level spontaneously and cannot be enhanced by explicit instructions.
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16
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Abstract
Our social environment, from the microscopic to the macro-social, affects us for the entirety of our lives. One integral line of research to examine how interpersonal and societal environments can get "under the skin" is through the lens of epigenetics. Epigenetic mechanisms are adaptations made to our genome in response to our environment which include tags placed on and removed from the DNA itself to how our DNA is packaged, affecting how our genes are read, transcribed, and interact. These tags are affected by social environments and can persist over time; this may aid us in responding to experiences and exposures, both the enriched and the disadvantageous. From memory formation to immune function, the experience-dependent plasticity of epigenetic modifications to micro- and macro-social environments may contribute to the process of learning from comfort, pain, and stress to better survive in whatever circumstances life has in store.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah M Merrill
- Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, British Columbia Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Nicole Gladish
- Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, British Columbia Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Michael S Kobor
- Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, British Columbia Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
- Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
- Human Early Learning Partnership, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
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17
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Bayet L, Quinn PC, Laboissière R, Caldara R, Lee K, Pascalis O. Fearful but not happy expressions boost face detection in human infants. Proc Biol Sci 2018; 284:rspb.2017.1054. [PMID: 28878060 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.1054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2017] [Accepted: 07/28/2017] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Human adults show an attentional bias towards fearful faces, an adaptive behaviour that relies on amygdala function. This attentional bias emerges in infancy between 5 and 7 months, but the underlying developmental mechanism is unknown. To examine possible precursors, we investigated whether 3.5-, 6- and 12-month-old infants show facilitated detection of fearful faces in noise, compared to happy faces. Happy or fearful faces, mixed with noise, were presented to infants (N = 192), paired with pure noise. We applied multivariate pattern analyses to several measures of infant looking behaviour to derive a criterion-free, continuous measure of face detection evidence in each trial. Analyses of the resulting psychometric curves supported the hypothesis of a detection advantage for fearful faces compared to happy faces, from 3.5 months of age and across all age groups. Overall, our data show a readiness to detect fearful faces (compared to happy faces) in younger infants that developmentally precedes the previously documented attentional bias to fearful faces in older infants and adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurie Bayet
- LPNC, Université Grenoble-Alpes, 38000 Grenoble, France .,LPNC, CNRS, 38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Paul C Quinn
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA
| | - Rafael Laboissière
- LPNC, Université Grenoble-Alpes, 38000 Grenoble, France.,LPNC, CNRS, 38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Roberto Caldara
- Eye and Brain Mapping Laboratory (iBMLab), Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Kang Lee
- Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Olivier Pascalis
- LPNC, Université Grenoble-Alpes, 38000 Grenoble, France.,LPNC, CNRS, 38000 Grenoble, France
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18
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Abstract
Eyes have been shown to play a key role during human social interactions. However, to date, no comprehensive cross-discipline model has provided a framework that can account for uniquely human responses to eye cues. In this review, I present a framework that brings together work on the phylogenetic, ontogenetic, and neural bases of perceiving and responding to eyes. Specifically, I argue for a two-process model: a first process that ensures privileged attention to information encoded in the eyes and is important for the detection of other minds and a second process that permits the decoding of information contained in the eyes concerning another person's emotional and mental states. To some degree, these processes are unique to humans, emerge during different times in infant development, can be mapped onto distinct but interconnected brain regions, and likely serve critical functions in facilitating cooperative interactions in humans. I also present evidence to show that oxytocin is a key modulator of sensitive responding to eye cues. Viewing eyes as windows into other minds can therefore be considered a hallmark feature of human social functioning deeply rooted in our biology.
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Nishizato M, Fujisawa TX, Kosaka H, Tomoda A. Developmental changes in social attention and oxytocin levels in infants and children. Sci Rep 2017; 7:2540. [PMID: 28566712 PMCID: PMC5451468 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-02368-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2016] [Accepted: 04/10/2017] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Oxytocin (OT) signalling represents one of the most critical systems involved in human social behaviour. Although several studies have examined the relationship between social functioning and peripheral OT levels, the association between OT and the development of social attention has not been well studied. Therefore, we investigated the developmental relationship between gaze fixation for social cues and OT levels during young childhood. We examined visual attention using an eye tracking system in infants and children (5-90 months of age) and measured the concentration of OT in saliva samples. We observed a negative association between age and both attention toward social cues and salivary OT levels, and a positive association between age and attention for non-social cues. We also observed that salivary OT levels were modulated by polymorphisms in oxytocin receptor (OXTR) rs53576. Our results suggest that there is an age-dependent association between visual attention for social cues and OT levels in infants and children, and that the development of visual attention to the eyes as social cues is associated with both OXTR polymorphisms and OT levels. Such findings indicate that OT and OXTR status may provide insight into the atypical development of social attention in infants and young children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minaho Nishizato
- Division of Developmental Higher Brain Functions, United Graduate School of Child Development, University of Fukui, Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Fukui 910-1193, Japan
| | - Takashi X Fujisawa
- Division of Developmental Higher Brain Functions, United Graduate School of Child Development, University of Fukui, Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Fukui 910-1193, Japan
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, University of Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Fukui, 910-1193, Japan
| | - Hirotaka Kosaka
- Division of Developmental Higher Brain Functions, United Graduate School of Child Development, University of Fukui, Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Fukui 910-1193, Japan
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, University of Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Fukui, 910-1193, Japan
| | - Akemi Tomoda
- Division of Developmental Higher Brain Functions, United Graduate School of Child Development, University of Fukui, Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Fukui 910-1193, Japan.
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, University of Fukui, 23-3 Matsuoka-Shimoaizuki, Eiheiji-cho, Fukui, 910-1193, Japan.
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Perez-Roche T, Altemir I, Giménez G, Prieto E, González I, López Pisón J, Pueyo V. Face recognition impairment in small for gestational age and preterm children. RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES 2017; 62:166-173. [PMID: 28171826 DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2017.01.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2016] [Revised: 01/21/2017] [Accepted: 01/22/2017] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Infants born prematurely or with low birth weight are at increased risk of visual perceptual impairment. Face recognition is a high-order visual ability important for social development, which has been rarely assessed in premature or low birth weight children. AIMS To evaluate the influence of prematurity and low birth weight on face recognition skills. METHODS Seventy-seven children were evaluated as part of a prospective cohort study. They were divided into premature and term birth cohorts. Children with a birth weight below the 10th centile were considered small for gestational age. All children underwent a full ophthalmologic assessment and evaluation of face recognition skills using the Facial Memory subtest from the Test of Memory and Learning. RESULTS Premature infants scored worse on immediate face recognition compared to term infants. However, after adjusting for birth weight, prematurity was not associated with worse outcomes. Independent of gestational age, outcomes of low birth weight children were worse than those of appropriate birth weight children, for immediate face recognition (odds ratio [OR], 5.14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.32-21.74) and for face memory (OR, 4.48; 95% CI, 1.14-16.95). CONCLUSIONS Being born small for gestational age is associated with suboptimal face recognition skills, even in children without major neurodevelopmental problems.
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Affiliation(s)
- T Perez-Roche
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (ISS Aragón), Avenida San Juan Bosco 13, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain; Ophthalmology Department, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Paseo Isabel la Católica 1-3, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
| | - I Altemir
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (ISS Aragón), Avenida San Juan Bosco 13, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain; Optical Optometrist, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Paseo Isabel la Católica 1-3, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
| | - G Giménez
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (ISS Aragón), Avenida San Juan Bosco 13, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain; Optical Optometrist, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Paseo Isabel la Católica 1-3, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
| | - E Prieto
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (ISS Aragón), Avenida San Juan Bosco 13, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain; Ophthalmology Department, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Paseo Isabel la Católica 1-3, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
| | - I González
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (ISS Aragón), Avenida San Juan Bosco 13, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain; Ophthalmology Department, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Paseo Isabel la Católica 1-3, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
| | - J López Pisón
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (ISS Aragón), Avenida San Juan Bosco 13, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain; Child Neurology Unit, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Paseo Isabel la Católica 1-3, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
| | - V Pueyo
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (ISS Aragón), Avenida San Juan Bosco 13, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain; Ophthalmology Department, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Paseo Isabel la Católica 1-3, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain.
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Gillespie‐Smith K, Boardman JP, Murray IC, Norman JE, O'Hare A, Fletcher‐Watson S. Multiple Measures of Fixation on Social Content in Infancy: Evidence for a Single Social Cognitive Construct? INFANCY 2016; 21:241-257. [PMID: 26949376 PMCID: PMC4762533 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2015] [Revised: 07/19/2015] [Accepted: 07/27/2015] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
The preference of infants to fixate on social information in a stimulus is well known. We examine how this preference manifests across a series of free-viewing tasks using different stimulus types. Participants were thirty typically developing infants. We measured eye movements when viewing isolated faces, faces alongside objects in a grid, and faces naturally presented in photographed scenes. In each task, infants fixated social content for longer than nonsocial content. Social preference scores representing distribution of fixation to social versus general image content were highly correlated and thus combined into a single composite measure, which was independent of demographic and behavioral measures. We infer that multiple eye-tracking tasks can be used to generate a composite measure of social preference in infancy. This approach may prove useful in the early characterization of developmental disabilities.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - James P. Boardman
- MRC Centre for Reproductive Health & Centre for Clinical Brain SciencesQueen's Medical Research InstituteUniversity of Edinburgh
| | - Ian C. Murray
- Department of Child Life and HealthUniversity of Edinburgh
| | - Jane E. Norman
- MRC Centre for Reproductive HealthQueen's Medical Research InstituteUniversity of Edinburgh
| | - Anne O'Hare
- The Salvesen Mindroom CentreUniversity of Edinburgh
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22
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de Heering A, Goffaux V, Dollion N, Godard O, Durand K, Baudouin JY. Three-month-old infants' sensitivity to horizontal information within faces. Dev Psychobiol 2016; 58:536-42. [PMID: 26857944 DOI: 10.1002/dev.21396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2015] [Accepted: 01/20/2016] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Horizontal information is crucial to face processing in adults. Yet the ontogeny of this preferential type of processing remains unknown. To clarify this issue, we tested 3-month-old infants' sensitivity to horizontal information within faces. Specifically, infants were exposed to the simultaneous presentation of a face and a car presented in upright or inverted orientation while their looking behavior was recorded. Face and car images were either broadband (UNF) or filtered to only reveal horizontal (H), vertical (V) or this combined information (HV). As expected, infants looked longer at upright faces than at upright cars, but critically, only when horizontal information was preserved in the stimulus (UNF, HV, H). These results first indicate that horizontal information already drives upright face processing at 3 months of age. They also recall the importance, for infants, of some facial features, arranged in a top-heavy configuration, particularly revealed by this band of information. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 58: 536-542, 2016.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adélaïde de Heering
- Institute of Research in Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience, University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
| | - Valérie Goffaux
- Institute of Research in Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience, University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Nicolas Dollion
- Developmental Ethology and Cognitive Psychology Group, Center for Smell, Taste, and Food Science, UMR 6265 CNRS - UMR 1324 INRA - Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - Ornella Godard
- Developmental Ethology and Cognitive Psychology Group, Center for Smell, Taste, and Food Science, UMR 6265 CNRS - UMR 1324 INRA - Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - Karine Durand
- Developmental Ethology and Cognitive Psychology Group, Center for Smell, Taste, and Food Science, UMR 6265 CNRS - UMR 1324 INRA - Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - Jean-Yves Baudouin
- Developmental Ethology and Cognitive Psychology Group, Center for Smell, Taste, and Food Science, UMR 6265 CNRS - UMR 1324 INRA - Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France.,Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
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23
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Segal NL, Goetz AT, Maldonado AC. Preferences for visible white sclera in adults, children and autism spectrum disorder children: implications of the cooperative eye hypothesis. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.06.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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24
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Jakobsen KV, Umstead L, Simpson EA. Efficient human face detection in infancy. Dev Psychobiol 2015; 58:129-36. [PMID: 26248583 DOI: 10.1002/dev.21338] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2015] [Accepted: 07/13/2015] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Adults detect conspecific faces more efficiently than heterospecific faces; however, the development of this own-species bias (OSB) remains unexplored. We tested whether 6- and 11-month-olds exhibit OSB in their attention to human and animal faces in complex visual displays with high perceptual load (25 images competing for attention). Infants (n = 48) and adults (n = 43) passively viewed arrays containing a face among 24 non-face distractors while we measured their gaze with remote eye tracking. While OSB is typically not observed until about 9 months, we found that, already by 6 months, human faces were more likely to be detected, were detected more quickly (attention capture), and received longer looks (attention holding) than animal faces. These data suggest that 6-month-olds already exhibit OSB in face detection efficiency, consistent with perceptual attunement. This specialization may reflect the biological importance of detecting conspecific faces, a foundational ability for early social interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lindsey Umstead
- Department of Psychology, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA
| | - Elizabeth A Simpson
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Dickerson, MD, USA.,Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
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25
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Amestoy A, Guillaud E, Bouvard MP, Cazalets JR. Developmental changes in face visual scanning in autism spectrum disorder as assessed by data-based analysis. Front Psychol 2015; 6:989. [PMID: 26236264 PMCID: PMC4503892 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2015] [Accepted: 06/29/2015] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present reduced visual attention to faces. However, contradictory conclusions have been drawn about the strategies involved in visual face scanning due to the various methodologies implemented in the study of facial screening. Here, we used a data-driven approach to compare children and adults with ASD subjected to the same free viewing task and to address developmental aspects of face scanning, including its temporal patterning, in healthy children, and adults. Four groups (54 subjects) were included in the study: typical adults, typically developing children, and adults and children with ASD. Eye tracking was performed on subjects viewing unfamiliar faces. Fixations were analyzed using a data-driven approach that employed spatial statistics to provide an objective, unbiased definition of the areas of interest. Typical adults expressed a spatial and temporal strategy for visual scanning that differed from the three other groups, involving a sequential fixation of the right eye (RE), left eye (LE), and mouth. Typically developing children, adults and children with autism exhibited similar fixation patterns and they always started by looking at the RE. Children (typical or with ASD) subsequently looked at the LE or the mouth. Based on the present results, the patterns of fixation for static faces that mature from childhood to adulthood in typical subjects are not found in adults with ASD. The atypical patterns found after developmental progression and experience in ASD groups appear to remain blocked in an immature state that cannot be differentiated from typical developmental child patterns of fixation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anouck Amestoy
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Charles Perrens Hospital, Université de Bordeaux, BordeauxFrance
- CNRS UMR 5287, Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine, Université de Bordeaux, BordeauxFrance
| | - Etienne Guillaud
- CNRS UMR 5287, Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine, Université de Bordeaux, BordeauxFrance
| | - Manuel P. Bouvard
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Charles Perrens Hospital, Université de Bordeaux, BordeauxFrance
- CNRS UMR 5287, Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine, Université de Bordeaux, BordeauxFrance
| | - Jean-René Cazalets
- CNRS UMR 5287, Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine, Université de Bordeaux, BordeauxFrance
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26
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Simion F, Giorgio ED. Face perception and processing in early infancy: inborn predispositions and developmental changes. Front Psychol 2015; 6:969. [PMID: 26217285 PMCID: PMC4496551 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00969] [Citation(s) in RCA: 70] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2015] [Accepted: 06/28/2015] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
From birth it is critical for our survival to identify social agents and conspecifics. Among others stimuli, faces provide the required information. The present paper will review the mechanisms subserving face detection and face recognition, respectively, over development. In addition, the emergence of the functional and neural specialization for face processing as an experience-dependent process will be documented. Overall, the present work highlights the importance of both inborn predispositions and the exposure to certain experiences, shortly after birth, to drive the system to become functionally specialized to process faces in the first months of life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Simion
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Elisa Di Giorgio
- CIMeC, Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
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27
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Simpson EA, Suomi SJ, Paukner A. Evolutionary relevance and experience contribute to face discrimination in infant macaques ( Macaca mulatta). JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2015; 17:285-299. [PMID: 27212893 DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2015.1048863] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
In human children and adults, familiar face types-typically own-age and own-species faces-are discriminated better than other face types; however, human infants do not appear to exhibit an own-age bias, but instead better discriminate adult faces, which they see more often. There are two possible explanations for this pattern: Perceptual attunement, which predicts advantages in discrimination for the most-experienced face types; additionally or alternatively, there may be an experience-independent bias for infants to discriminate own-species faces, an adaptation for evolutionarily relevant faces. These possibilities have not been disentangled in studies thus far, which did not control infants' early experiences with faces. In the present study, we tested these predictions in infant macaques (Macaca mulatta) reared under controlled environments, not exposed to adult conspecifics. We measured newborns' (15-25 days; n = 27) and 6- to 7-month-olds' (n = 35) discrimination of human and macaque faces of three ages-young infants, old infants, and adults-in a visual paired comparison task. We found that 6- to 7-month-olds were the best at discriminating adult macaque faces; however, in the first few seconds of looking, additionally discriminated familiar face types-same-aged peer and adult human faces-highlighting the importance of experience with certain face categories. The present data suggest that macaque infants possess both experience-independent and experientially tuned face biases. In human infants, early face skills may likewise be driven by both experience and evolutionary relevance; future studies should consider both of these factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth A Simpson
- Laboratory of Comparative Ethology, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Poolesville, MD, USA; Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Stephen J Suomi
- Laboratory of Comparative Ethology, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Poolesville, MD, USA
| | - Annika Paukner
- Laboratory of Comparative Ethology, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Poolesville, MD, USA
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28
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Damon F, Bayet L, Quinn PC, Hillairet de Boisferon A, Méary D, Dupierrix E, Lee K, Pascalis O. Can human eyes prevent perceptual narrowing for monkey faces in human infants? Dev Psychobiol 2015; 57:637-42. [PMID: 25952509 DOI: 10.1002/dev.21319] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2014] [Accepted: 04/04/2015] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Perceptual narrowing has been observed in human infants for monkey faces: 6-month-olds can discriminate between them, whereas older infants from 9 months of age display difficulty discriminating between them. The difficulty infants from 9 months have processing monkey faces has not been clearly identified. It could be due to the structural characteristics of monkey faces, particularly the key facial features that differ from human faces. The current study aimed to investigate whether the information conveyed by the eyes is of importance. We examined whether the presence of Caucasian human eyes in monkey faces allows recognition to be maintained in 6-month-olds and facilitates recognition in 9- and 12-month-olds. Our results revealed that the presence of human eyes in monkey faces maintains recognition for those faces at 6 months of age and partially facilitates recognition of those faces at 9 months of age, but not at 12 months of age. The findings are interpreted in the context of perceptual narrowing and suggest that the attenuation of processing of other-species faces is not reversed by the presence of human eyes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrice Damon
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LPNC, Grenoble, F-38000, France
| | - Laurie Bayet
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LPNC, Grenoble, F-38000, France
| | - Paul C Quinn
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, USA
| | | | - David Méary
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LPNC, Grenoble, F-38000, France
| | - Eve Dupierrix
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LPNC, Grenoble, F-38000, France
| | - Kang Lee
- Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
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Rossi A, Parada FJ, Latinus M, Puce A. Photographic but not line-drawn faces show early perceptual neural sensitivity to eye gaze direction. Front Hum Neurosci 2015; 9:185. [PMID: 25914636 PMCID: PMC4392689 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00185] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2014] [Accepted: 03/19/2015] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Our brains readily decode facial movements and changes in social attention, reflected in earlier and larger N170 event-related potentials (ERPs) to viewing gaze aversions vs. direct gaze in real faces (Puce et al., 2000). In contrast, gaze aversions in line-drawn faces do not produce these N170 differences (Rossi et al., 2014), suggesting that physical stimulus properties or experimental context may drive these effects. Here we investigated the role of stimulus-induced context on neurophysiological responses to dynamic gaze. Sixteen healthy adults viewed line-drawn and real faces, with dynamic eye aversion and direct gaze transitions, and control stimuli (scrambled arrays and checkerboards) while continuous electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded. EEG data from 2 temporo-occipital clusters of 9 electrodes in each hemisphere where N170 activity is known to be maximal were selected for analysis. N170 peak amplitude and latency, and temporal dynamics from Event-Related Spectral Perturbations (ERSPs) were measured in 16 healthy subjects. Real faces generated larger N170s for averted vs. direct gaze motion, however, N170s to real and direct gaze were as large as those to respective controls. N170 amplitude did not differ across line-drawn gaze changes. Overall, bilateral mean gamma power changes for faces relative to control stimuli occurred between 150–350 ms, potentially reflecting signal detection of facial motion. Our data indicate that experimental context does not drive N170 differences to viewed gaze changes. Low-level stimulus properties, such as the high sclera/iris contrast change in real eyes likely drive the N170 changes to viewed aversive movements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandra Rossi
- Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA ; Program in Neuroscience, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Francisco J Parada
- Program in Neuroscience, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA ; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA ; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Boston, MA, USA
| | - Marianne Latinus
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA ; Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, UMR7289, CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université Marseille, France
| | - Aina Puce
- Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA ; Program in Neuroscience, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA ; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA
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Méary D, Mermillod M, Pascalis O. Binocular correlation model of face preference: how good, how simple? Dev Sci 2014; 17:828-30. [DOI: 10.1111/desc.12201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2014] [Accepted: 04/11/2014] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- David Méary
- Université Grenoble Alpes; Grenoble and CNRS; Grenoble France
| | - Martial Mermillod
- Université Grenoble Alpes; Grenoble and CNRS; Grenoble France
- Institut Universitaire de France; Paris France
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Hyvärinen L, Walthes R, Jacob N, Chaplin KN, Leonhardt M. Current Understanding of What Infants See. CURRENT OPHTHALMOLOGY REPORTS 2014; 2:142-149. [PMID: 25478306 PMCID: PMC4243010 DOI: 10.1007/s40135-014-0056-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
The current understanding of what infants see varies greatly among healthcare and education specialists. Even among ophthalmologists and pediatric neurologists in charge of clinical examinations of infants, opinions vary on what infants perceive, recognize, and use for communication and learning. It is, therefore, of interest to review publications from several specialties to learn whether new information is available on the development of visual functions and use of vision. Ten percent of total publications on this subject are reviewed here based on the usefulness of their content for improving early diagnosis and intervention of vision disorders in infants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lea Hyvärinen
- Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, TU Dortmund, August-Schmidt-Straße 4, 44227 Dortmund, Germany
- Present Address: 644 Whitetail Drive, Lewisberry, PA 17339 USA
| | - Renate Walthes
- Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, TU Dortmund University, 44221 Dortmund, Germany
| | - Namita Jacob
- Perkins International, Watertown, MA USA
- Chetana Trust, 15 Arunachalam Road, Kotturpuram, Chennai, 600085 India
| | - Kay Nottingham Chaplin
- National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness, Chicago, USA
- Vision and Eye Health Initiatives, Good-Lite, 42 East Street, Westover, WV 26501 USA
| | - Mercè Leonhardt
- Early Intervention Ramon Marti Bonet Foundation against blindness, Barcelona, Spain
- ICR Catalan Institute of Retina, 08172 Barcelona, Spain
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