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Rekow D, Baudouin JY, Kiseleva A, Rossion B, Durand K, Schaal B, Leleu A. Olfactory-to-visual facilitation in the infant brain declines gradually from 4 to 12 months. Child Dev 2024. [PMID: 39022837 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.14124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/20/2024]
Abstract
During infancy, intersensory facilitation declines gradually as unisensory perception develops. However, this trade-off was mainly investigated using audiovisual stimulations. Here, fifty 4- to 12-month-old infants (26 females, predominately White) were tested in 2017-2020 to determine whether the facilitating effect of their mother's body odor on neural face categorization, as previously observed at 4 months, decreases with age. In a baseline odor context, the results revealed a face-selective electroencephalographic response that increases and changes qualitatively between 4 and 12 months, marking improved face categorization. At the same time, the benefit of adding maternal odor fades with age (R2 = .31), indicating an inverse relation with the amplitude of the visual response, and generalizing to olfactory-visual interactions previous evidence from the audiovisual domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diane Rekow
- Development of Olfactory Communication & Cognition Lab, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, Université de Bourgogne, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS, INRAe, Institut Agro Dijon, Dijon, France
- Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Jean-Yves Baudouin
- Laboratoire "Développement, Individu, Processus, Handicap, Éducation" (DIPHE), Département Psychologie du Développement, de l'Éducation et des Vulnérabilités (PsyDÉV), Institut de Psychologie, Université de Lyon (Lumière Lyon 2), Bron, France
- Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
| | - Anna Kiseleva
- Development of Olfactory Communication & Cognition Lab, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, Université de Bourgogne, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS, INRAe, Institut Agro Dijon, Dijon, France
| | - Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, IMoPA, Nancy, France
- Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, Nancy, France
| | - Karine Durand
- Development of Olfactory Communication & Cognition Lab, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, Université de Bourgogne, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS, INRAe, Institut Agro Dijon, Dijon, France
| | - Benoist Schaal
- Development of Olfactory Communication & Cognition Lab, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, Université de Bourgogne, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS, INRAe, Institut Agro Dijon, Dijon, France
| | - Arnaud Leleu
- Development of Olfactory Communication & Cognition Lab, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, Université de Bourgogne, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS, INRAe, Institut Agro Dijon, Dijon, France
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2
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Prunty J, Jenkins R, Qarooni R, Bindemann M. Face detection in contextual scenes. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0304288. [PMID: 38865378 PMCID: PMC11168631 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304288] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/09/2024] [Indexed: 06/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Object and scene perception are intertwined. When objects are expected to appear within a particular scene, they are detected and categorised with greater speed and accuracy. This study examined whether such context effects also moderate the perception of social objects such as faces. Female and male faces were embedded in scenes with a stereotypical female or male context. Semantic congruency of these scene contexts influenced the categorisation of faces (Experiment 1). These effects were bi-directional, such that face sex also affected scene categorisation (Experiment 2), suggesting concurrent automatic processing of both levels. In contrast, the more elementary task of face detection was not affected by semantic scene congruency (Experiment 3), even when scenes were previewed prior to face presentation (Experiment 4). This pattern of results indicates that semantic scene context can affect categorisation of faces. However, the earlier perceptual stage of detection appears to be encapsulated from the cognitive processes that give rise to this contextual interference.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Prunty
- School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom
- Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Rob Jenkins
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
| | - Rana Qarooni
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
| | - Markus Bindemann
- School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom
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3
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Aija A, Leppänen J, Aarnos L, Hyvönen M, Ståhlberg-Forsén E, Ahlqvist-Björkroth S, Stolt S, Toome L, Lehtonen L. Exposure to the parents' speech is positively associated with preterm infant's face preference. Pediatr Res 2024:10.1038/s41390-024-03239-8. [PMID: 38783114 DOI: 10.1038/s41390-024-03239-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2023] [Revised: 12/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/26/2023] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The parents' presence and involvement in neonatal care is a promising approach to improve preterm infants' neurodevelopmental outcomes. We examined whether exposure to the parents' speech is associated with the preterm infant's social-cognitive development. METHODS The study included infants born before 32 gestational weeks in two neonatal units. Each infant's language environment was assessed from 16-hour recordings using Language Environment Analysis (LENA®). Parental presence was assessed with Closeness Diary for 14 days during the hospital stay. Attention to faces and non-face patterns was measured at the corrected age of seven months using an eye-tracking disengagement test. RESULTS A total of 63 preterm infants were included. Infants were less likely to disengage their attention from faces (M = 0.55, SD = 0.26) than non-face patterns (M = 0.24, SD = 0.22), p < 0.001, d = 0.84. Exposure to the parents' speech during the neonatal period was positively correlated with the preference for faces over non-face patterns (rs = 0.34, p = 0.009) and with the preference for parents over unfamiliar faces (rs = 0.28, p = 0.034). CONCLUSION The exposure to the parents' speech during neonatal hospital care is a potential early marker for later social development in preterm infants. IMPACT The exposure to the parents' speech during neonatal intensive care is a potential early marker for optimal social-cognitive development in preterm infants. This is the first study to show an association between parental vocal contact during neonatal intensive care and early social development (i.e., face preference), measured at seven months of corrected age. Our findings suggest that we should pay attention to the parents' vocal contact with their child in the neonatal intensive care unit and identify need for tailored support for face-to-face and vocal contact.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anette Aija
- University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
- Department of Neonatal and Infant Medicine, Tallinn Children's Hospital, Tallinn, Estonia.
| | - Jukka Leppänen
- Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | | | | | - Eva Ståhlberg-Forsén
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | | | - Suvi Stolt
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Liis Toome
- Department of Neonatal and Infant Medicine, Tallinn Children's Hospital, Tallinn, Estonia
| | - Liisa Lehtonen
- University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- Department of Pediatrics, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
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4
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Zhang Y, Zhang H, Fu S. Relative saliency affects attentional capture and suppression of color and face singleton distractors: evidence from event-related potential studies. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae176. [PMID: 38679483 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2023] [Revised: 03/30/2024] [Accepted: 04/09/2024] [Indexed: 05/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Prior research has yet to fully elucidate the impact of varying relative saliency between target and distractor on attentional capture and suppression, along with their underlying neural mechanisms, especially when social (e.g. face) and perceptual (e.g. color) information interchangeably serve as singleton targets or distractors, competing for attention in a search array. Here, we employed an additional singleton paradigm to investigate the effects of relative saliency on attentional capture (as assessed by N2pc) and suppression (as assessed by PD) of color or face singleton distractors in a visual search task by recording event-related potentials. We found that face singleton distractors with higher relative saliency induced stronger attentional processing. Furthermore, enhancing the physical salience of colors using a bold color ring could enhance attentional processing toward color singleton distractors. Reducing the physical salience of facial stimuli by blurring weakened attentional processing toward face singleton distractors; however, blurring enhanced attentional processing toward color singleton distractors because of the change in relative saliency. In conclusion, the attentional processes of singleton distractors are affected by their relative saliency to singleton targets, with higher relative saliency of singleton distractors resulting in stronger attentional capture and suppression; faces, however, exhibit some specificity in attentional capture and suppression due to high social saliency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yue Zhang
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, 230 Wai Huan Xi Road, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Hai Zhang
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, 230 Wai Huan Xi Road, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Shimin Fu
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, 230 Wai Huan Xi Road, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou 510006, China
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5
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Oakes LM, Hayes TR, Klotz SM, Pomaranski KI, Henderson JM. The role of local meaning in infants' fixations of natural scenes. INFANCY 2024; 29:284-298. [PMID: 38183667 PMCID: PMC10872336 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12582] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Revised: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 12/22/2023] [Indexed: 01/08/2024]
Abstract
As infants view visual scenes every day, they must shift their eye gaze and visual attention from location to location, sampling information to process and learn. Like adults, infants' gaze when viewing natural scenes (i.e., photographs of everyday scenes) is influenced by the physical features of the scene image and a general bias to look more centrally in a scene. However, it is unknown how infants' gaze while viewing such scenes is influenced by the semantic content of the scenes. Here, we tested the relative influence of local meaning, controlling for physical salience and center bias, on the eye gaze of 4- to 12-month-old infants (N = 92) as they viewed natural scenes. Overall, infants were more likely to fixate scene regions rated as higher in meaning, indicating that, like adults, the semantic content, or local meaning, of scenes influences where they look. More importantly, the effect of meaning on infant attention increased with age, providing the first evidence for an age-related increase in the impact of local meaning on infants' eye movements while viewing natural scenes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa M. Oakes
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis
| | | | - Shannon M. Klotz
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis
| | - Katherine I. Pomaranski
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis
| | - John M. Henderson
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis
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6
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Tsuji Y, Kanazawa S, Yamaguchi MK. Emotional response in babies' pupil contagion. J Exp Child Psychol 2024; 238:105801. [PMID: 37883903 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105801] [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: 12/15/2022] [Revised: 10/01/2023] [Accepted: 10/01/2023] [Indexed: 10/28/2023]
Abstract
In this study, it was investigated whether an emotional response would occur in pupil contagion by using skin conductance response (SCR) in 5- and 6-month-old infants. In the experiment, emotional responses to pupil diameter change (dilating/constricting) between the face and eyes regions were compared by using pupil diameter response and SCR. The results showed that pupil diameter responses to pupil diameter changes did not differ between face and eyes regions. The emotional response indicated by the SCR significantly increased when participants looked at dilating pupils of face stimuli compared with when participants looked at constricted pupils of face stimuli. In addition, we found a significant correlation between SCR and pupil dilation in the face. This means that pupil diameter expansion significantly increases emotional response in pupil dilation of the face region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuki Tsuji
- Institute of Cultural Sciences, Chuo University, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0393, Japan; Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0083, Japan.
| | - So Kanazawa
- Department of Psychology, Japan Women's University, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8681, Japan
| | - Masami K Yamaguchi
- Department of Psychology, Chuo University, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo 192-0393, Japan
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7
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Linka M, Sensoy Ö, Karimpur H, Schwarzer G, de Haas B. Free viewing biases for complex scenes in preschoolers and adults. Sci Rep 2023; 13:11803. [PMID: 37479760 PMCID: PMC10362043 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-38854-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2022] [Accepted: 07/16/2023] [Indexed: 07/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Adult gaze behaviour towards naturalistic scenes is highly biased towards semantic object classes. Little is known about the ontological development of these biases, nor about group-level differences in gaze behaviour between adults and preschoolers. Here, we let preschoolers (n = 34, age 5 years) and adults (n = 42, age 18-59 years) freely view 40 complex scenes containing objects with different semantic attributes to compare their fixation behaviour. Results show that preschool children allocate a significantly smaller proportion of dwell time and first fixations on Text and instead fixate Faces, Touched objects, Hands and Bodies more. A predictive model of object fixations controlling for a range of potential confounds suggests that most of these differences can be explained by drastically reduced text salience in pre-schoolers and that this effect is independent of low-level salience. These findings are in line with a developmental attentional antagonism between text and body parts (touched objects and hands in particular), which resonates with recent findings regarding 'cortical recycling'. We discuss this and other potential mechanisms driving salience differences between children and adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcel Linka
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, 35394, Giessen, Germany.
| | - Özlem Sensoy
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, 35394, Giessen, Germany
| | - Harun Karimpur
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, 35394, Giessen, Germany
| | - Gudrun Schwarzer
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, 35394, Giessen, Germany
| | - Benjamin de Haas
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, 35394, Giessen, Germany
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8
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Kobayashi M, Kanazawa S, Yamaguchi MK. The role of scenic context on upright face preference in infancy. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0288253. [PMID: 37440545 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2022] [Accepted: 06/22/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Scenic information plays an important role in face processing, whereas it has received limited attention in the field of developmental research. In the current study, we investigated whether infants, like adults, utilize scenic information for face processing by the preferential-looking method. In Experiment 1, we examined 4-5 and 6-7-month-olds' visual preferences for upright faces compared to inverted faces in two surrounding scene conditions: intact (in which a face occurs in an intact scene) and scrambled (in which a face occurs in a jumbled scene). We found that 6- to 7-month-olds preferred the upright face in the intact scene, but not in the scrambled scene. Meanwhile, 4- to 5-month-olds showed significant upright face preference in both scenes. The results of Experiment 2 ruled out the possibility that the lack of preference for upright faces in the scrambled scene in 6- to 7-month-olds resulted from more distraction by the scrambledness of the image than occurs with 4- to 5-month-olds, by showing no developmental changes in preference either for the scrambled images or the intact images when faces did not appear. Our results suggest that infants aged 6 months or more utilize scenic information for face processing.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - So Kanazawa
- Department of Psychology, Japan Women's University, Bunkyo City, Japan
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9
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Hunter BK, Markant J. 6- to 10-year-old children do not show race-based orienting biases to faces during an online attention capture task. J Exp Child Psychol 2023; 230:105628. [PMID: 36706653 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105628] [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: 09/13/2022] [Revised: 01/05/2023] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Research has established that frequency of exposure to own- and other-race faces shapes the development of face processing biases characterized by enhanced attention to and recognition of more familiar own-race faces, that is, the other-race effect (ORE). The ORE is first evident during infancy based on differences in looking to own- versus other-race faces and is later assessed based on recognition memory task performance during childhood and adulthood. Using these measures, researchers have found that race-based face processing biases initially develop during infancy but remain sensitive to experiences with own- and other-race faces through childhood. In contrast, limited work suggests that infants' attention orienting may be less affected by frequency of exposure to own- and other-race faces. However, the plasticity of race-based face processing biases during childhood suggests that biased orienting to own-race faces may develop at later ages following continued exposure to these faces. We addressed this question by examining 6- to 10-year-old children's attention capture by own- and other-race faces during an online task. Children searched for a target among multiple distractors. During some trials, either an own- or other-race face appeared as one of the distractors. Children showed similar target detection performance (omission errors, accuracy, and response times) regardless of whether an own- or other-race face appeared as a distractor. These results differ from research demonstrating race-based biases in attention holding and recognition memory but converge with previous infant research suggesting that attention orienting might not be as strongly affected by frequency of exposure to race-based information during development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brianna K Hunter
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95618, USA; Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA.
| | - Julie Markant
- Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA; Tulane Brain Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
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10
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Wang Y, Peng S, Shao Z, Feng T. Active Viewing Facilitates Gaze to the Eye Region in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 2023; 53:1082-1090. [PMID: 35129796 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-022-05462-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies have shown reduced attention to the eyes in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, most eye-tracking evidence regarding this impairment has been derived from passive viewing tasks. Here, we compared the passive viewing of faces with an active task involving face identification with morphing faces. While typical controls prioritized the eyes over other facial features regardless of viewing condition, autistic children exhibited reduced eye-looking in passive viewing, but displayed increased attention allocation to the eyes when instructed to identify faces. The proportional eye-looking in ASD during facial recognition was negatively related to the autism symptoms severity. These findings provide evidence regarding the specific situations in which diminished eye-looking may rise in young ASD children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yige Wang
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, No.2, Tiansheng RD., Beibei, Chongqing, 400715, China
| | - Shuai Peng
- Rehabilitation Center for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, The First Branch of Ninth People's Hospital, No.1, Benyue RD., Beibei, Chongqing, 400715, China
| | - Zhi Shao
- Rehabilitation Center for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, The First Branch of Ninth People's Hospital, No.1, Benyue RD., Beibei, Chongqing, 400715, China.
| | - Tingyong Feng
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, No.2, Tiansheng RD., Beibei, Chongqing, 400715, China.
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Chongqing, China.
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11
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Tsurumi S, Kanazawa S, Yamaguchi MK, Kawahara JI. Development of upper visual field bias for faces in infants. Dev Sci 2023; 26:e13262. [PMID: 35340093 PMCID: PMC10078383 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2021] [Revised: 03/11/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
The spatial location of the face and body seen in daily life influences human perception and recognition. This contextual effect of spatial locations suggests that daily experience affects how humans visually process the face and body. However, it remains unclear whether this effect is caused by experience, or innate neural pathways. To address this issue, we examined the development of visual field asymmetry for face processing, in which faces in the upper visual field were processed preferentially compared to the lower visual field. We found that a developmental change occurred between 6 and 7 months. Older infants aged 7-8 months showed bias toward faces in the upper visual field, similar to adults, but younger infants of 5-6 months showed no such visual field bias. Furthermore, older infants preferentially memorized faces in the upper visual field, rather than in the lower visual field. These results suggest that visual field asymmetry is acquired through development, and might be caused by the learning of spatial location in daily experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuma Tsurumi
- Department of Psychology, Chuo University, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan.,Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
| | - So Kanazawa
- Department of Psychology, Japan Women's University, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
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12
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Franchak JM, Kadooka K. Age differences in orienting to faces in dynamic scenes depend on face centering, not visual saliency. INFANCY 2022; 27:1032-1051. [PMID: 35932474 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The current study investigated how infants (6-24 months), children (2-12 years), and adults differ in how visual cues-visual saliency and centering-guide their attention to faces in videos. We report a secondary analysis of Kadooka and Franchak (2020), in which observers' eye movements were recorded during viewing of television clips containing a variety of faces. For every face on every video frame, we calculated its visual saliency (based on both static and dynamic image features) and calculated how close the face was to the center of the image. Results revealed that participants of every age looked more often at each face when it was more salient compared to less salient. In contrast, centering did not increase the likelihood that infants looked at a given face, but in later childhood and adulthood, centering became a stronger cue for face looking. A control analysis determined that the age-related change in centering was specific to face looking; participants of all ages were more likely to look at the center of the image, and this center bias did not change with age. The implications for using videos in educational and diagnostic contexts are discussed.
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13
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Prunty JE, Jenkins R, Qarooni R, Bindemann M. Ingroup and outgroup differences in face detection. Br J Psychol 2022; 114 Suppl 1:94-111. [PMID: 35876334 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2021] [Revised: 02/22/2022] [Accepted: 07/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Humans show improved recognition for faces from their own social group relative to faces from another social group. Yet before faces can be recognized, they must first be detected in the visual field. Here, we tested whether humans also show an ingroup bias at the earliest stage of face processing - the point at which the presence of a face is first detected. To this end, we measured viewers' ability to detect ingroup (Black and White) and outgroup faces (Asian, Black, and White) in everyday scenes. Ingroup faces were detected with greater speed and accuracy relative to outgroup faces (Experiment 1). Removing face hue impaired detection generally, but the ingroup detection advantage was undiminished (Experiment 2). This same pattern was replicated by a detection algorithm using face templates derived from human data (Experiment 3). These findings demonstrate that the established ingroup bias in face processing can extend to the early process of detection. This effect is 'colour blind', in the sense that group membership effects are independent of general effects of image hue. Moreover, it can be captured by tuning visual templates to reflect the statistics of observers' social experience. We conclude that group bias in face detection is both a visual and a social phenomenon.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Rob Jenkins
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, UK
| | - Rana Qarooni
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, UK
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14
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Leleu A, Rekow D. L’odeur maternelle aide le nourrisson à catégoriser des objets ressemblant à des visages. Med Sci (Paris) 2022; 38:541-544. [DOI: 10.1051/medsci/2022067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
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15
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The Detection of Face-like Stimuli at the Edge of the Infant Visual Field. Brain Sci 2022; 12:brainsci12040493. [PMID: 35448024 PMCID: PMC9026910 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12040493] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2022] [Revised: 04/07/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Human infants are highly sensitive to social information in their visual world. In laboratory settings, researchers have mainly studied the development of social information processing using faces presented on standard computer displays, in paradigms exploring face-to-face, direct eye contact social interactions. This is a simplification of a richer visual environment in which social information derives from the wider visual field and detection involves navigating the world with eyes, head and body movements. The present study measured 9-month-old infants’ sensitivities to face-like configurations across mid-peripheral visual areas using a detection task. Upright and inverted face-like stimuli appeared at one of three eccentricities (50°, 55° or 60°) in the left and right hemifields. Detection rates at different eccentricities were measured from video recordings. Results indicated that infant performance was heterogeneous and dropped beyond 55°, with a marginal advantage for targets appearing in the left hemifield. Infants’ orienting behaviour was not influenced by the orientation of the target stimulus. These findings are key to understanding how face stimuli are perceived outside foveal regions and are informative for the design of infant paradigms involving stimulus presentation across a wider field of view, in more naturalistic visual environments.
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16
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Schlegelmilch K, Wertz AE. Visual segmentation of complex naturalistic structures in an infant eye-tracking search task. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0266158. [PMID: 35363809 PMCID: PMC8975119 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2021] [Accepted: 03/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
An infant’s everyday visual environment is composed of a complex array of entities, some of which are well integrated into their surroundings. Although infants are already sensitive to some categories in their first year of life, it is not clear which visual information supports their detection of meaningful elements within naturalistic scenes. Here we investigated the impact of image characteristics on 8-month-olds’ search performance using a gaze contingent eye-tracking search task. Infants had to detect a target patch on a background image. The stimuli consisted of images taken from three categories: vegetation, non-living natural elements (e.g., stones), and manmade artifacts, for which we also assessed target background differences in lower- and higher-level visual properties. Our results showed that larger target-background differences in the statistical properties scaling invariance and entropy, and also stimulus backgrounds including low pictorial depth, predicted better detection performance. Furthermore, category membership only affected search performance if supported by luminance contrast. Data from an adult comparison group also indicated that infants’ search performance relied more on lower-order visual properties than adults. Taken together, these results suggest that infants use a combination of property- and category-related information to parse complex visual stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karola Schlegelmilch
- Max Planck Research Group Naturalistic Social Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Annie E. Wertz
- Max Planck Research Group Naturalistic Social Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
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17
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Kiat JE, Luck SJ, Beckner AG, Hayes TR, Pomaranski KI, Henderson JM, Oakes LM. Linking patterns of infant eye movements to a neural network model of the ventral stream using representational similarity analysis. Dev Sci 2022; 25:e13155. [PMID: 34240787 PMCID: PMC8639751 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13155] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2020] [Revised: 06/23/2021] [Accepted: 07/01/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Little is known about the development of higher-level areas of visual cortex during infancy, and even less is known about how the development of visually guided behavior is related to the different levels of the cortical processing hierarchy. As a first step toward filling these gaps, we used representational similarity analysis (RSA) to assess links between gaze patterns and a neural network model that captures key properties of the ventral visual processing stream. We recorded the eye movements of 4- to 12-month-old infants (N = 54) as they viewed photographs of scenes. For each infant, we calculated the similarity of the gaze patterns for each pair of photographs. We also analyzed the images using a convolutional neural network model in which the successive layers correspond approximately to the sequence of areas along the ventral stream. For each layer of the network, we calculated the similarity of the activation patterns for each pair of photographs, which was then compared with the infant gaze data. We found that the network layers corresponding to lower-level areas of visual cortex accounted for gaze patterns better in younger infants than in older infants, whereas the network layers corresponding to higher-level areas of visual cortex accounted for gaze patterns better in older infants than in younger infants. Thus, between 4 and 12 months, gaze becomes increasingly controlled by more abstract, higher-level representations. These results also demonstrate the feasibility of using RSA to link infant gaze behavior to neural network models. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/K5mF2Rw98Is.
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18
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Tomalski P, López Pérez D, Radkowska A, Malinowska-Korczak A. Selective Changes in Complexity of Visual Scanning for Social Stimuli in Infancy. Front Psychol 2021; 12:705600. [PMID: 34795610 PMCID: PMC8593402 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.705600] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2021] [Accepted: 10/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
In the 1st year of life, infants gradually gain the ability to control their eye movements and explore visual scenes, which support their learning and emerging cognitive skills. These gains include domain-general skills such as rapid orienting or attention disengagement as well as domain-specific ones such as increased sensitivity to social stimuli. However, it remains unknown whether these developmental changes in what infants fixate and for how long in naturalistic scenes lead to the emergence of more complex, repeated sequences of fixations, especially when viewing human figures and faces, and whether these changes are related to improvements in domain-general attentional skills. Here we tested longitudinally the developmental changes in the complexity of fixation sequences at 5.5 and 11 months of age using Recurrence Quantification Analysis. We measured changes in how fixations recur in the same location and changes in the patterns (repeated sequences) of fixations in social and non-social scenes that were either static or dynamic. We found more complex patterns (i.e., repeated and longer sequences) of fixations in social than non-social scenes, both static and dynamic. There was also an age-related increase in the length of repeated fixation sequences only for social static scenes, which was independent of individual differences in orienting and attention disengagement. Our results can be interpreted as evidence for fine-tuning of infants' visual scanning skills. They selectively produce longer and more complex sequences of fixations on faces and bodies before reaching the end of the 1st year of life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Przemysław Tomalski
- Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.,Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | | | - Alicja Radkowska
- Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.,Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
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19
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Aktar E, Nimphy CA, Kret ME, Pérez‐Edgar K, Bögels SM, Raijmakers MEJ. Pupil responses to dynamic negative facial expressions of emotion in infants and parents. Dev Psychobiol 2021; 63:e22190. [PMID: 34674251 PMCID: PMC9291579 DOI: 10.1002/dev.22190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2020] [Revised: 07/24/2021] [Accepted: 08/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Observing others' emotions triggers physiological arousal in infants as well as in adults, reflected in dilated pupil sizes. This study is the first to examine parents' and infants' pupil responses to dynamic negative emotional facial expressions. Moreover, the links between pupil responses and negative emotional dispositions were explored among infants and parents. Infants' and one of their parent's pupil responses to negative versus neutral faces were measured via eye tracking in 222 infants (5- to 7-month-olds, n = 77, 11- to 13-month-olds, n = 78, and 17- to 19-month-olds, n = 67) and 229 parents. One parent contributed to the pupil data, whereas both parents were invited to fill in questionnaires on their own and their infant's negative emotional dispositions. Infants did not differentially respond to negative expressions, while parents showed stronger pupil responses to negative versus neutral expressions. There was a positive association between infants' and their parent's mean pupil responses and significant links between mothers' and fathers' stress levels and their infants' pupil responses. We conclude that a direct association between pupil responses in parents and offspring is observable already in infancy in typical development. Stress in parents is related to their infants' pupillary arousal to negative emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evin Aktar
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology UnitLeiden UniversityLeidenNetherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC)Leiden UniversityLeidenNetherlands
- Department of Child Development and EducationUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
| | - Cosima A. Nimphy
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology UnitLeiden UniversityLeidenNetherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC)Leiden UniversityLeidenNetherlands
| | - Mariska E. Kret
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC)Leiden UniversityLeidenNetherlands
- Department of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology UnitLeiden UniversityLeidenNetherlands
| | - Koraly Pérez‐Edgar
- Department of PsychologyChild Study CenterThe Pennsylvania State UniversityPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Susan M. Bögels
- Department of Child Development and EducationUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
- Department of Psychology, Developmental PsychologyUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdamNetherlands
| | - Maartje E. J. Raijmakers
- Department of Psychology, Developmental PsychologyUniversity of AmsterdamAmsterdamNetherlands
- Department of Educational StudiesVrije Universiteit AmsterdamAmsterdamNetherlands
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20
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Prunty JE, Keemink JR, Kelly DJ. Infants show pupil dilatory responses to happy and angry facial expressions. Dev Sci 2021; 25:e13182. [PMID: 34633123 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2021] [Revised: 08/31/2021] [Accepted: 09/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Facial expressions are one way in which infants and adults communicate emotion. Infants scan expressions similarly to adults, yet it remains unclear whether they are receptive to the affective information they convey. The current study investigates 6-, 9- and 12-month infants' (N = 146) pupillary responses to the six "basic" emotional expressions (happy, sad, surprise, fear, anger, and disgust). To do this we use dynamic stimuli and gaze-contingent eye-tracking to simulate brief interactive exchanges, alongside a static control condition. Infants' arousal responses were stronger for dynamic compared to static stimuli. And for dynamic stimuli we found that, compared to neutral, infants showed dilatory responses for happy and angry expressions only. Although previous work has shown infants can discriminate perceptually between facial expressions, our data suggest that sensitivity to the affective content of all six basic emotional expressions may not fully emerge until later in ontogeny.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - David J Kelly
- School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
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21
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Pomaranski KI, Hayes TR, Kwon MK, Henderson JM, Oakes LM. Developmental changes in natural scene viewing in infancy. Dev Psychol 2021; 57:1025-1041. [PMID: 34435820 PMCID: PMC8406411 DOI: 10.1037/dev0001020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
We extend decades of research on infants' visual processing by examining their eye gaze during viewing of natural scenes. We examined the eye movements of a racially diverse group of 4- to 12-month-old infants (N = 54; 27 boys; 24 infants were White and not Hispanic, 30 infants were African American, Asian American, mixed race and/or Hispanic) as they viewed images selected from the MIT Saliency Benchmark Project. In general, across this age range infants' fixation distributions became more consistent and more adult-like, suggesting that infants' fixations in natural scenes become increasingly more systematic. Evaluation of infants' fixation patterns with saliency maps generated by different models of physical salience revealed that although over this age range there was an increase in the correlations between infants' fixations and saliency, the amount of variance accounted for by salience actually decreased. At the youngest age, the amount of variance accounted for by salience was very similar to the consistency between infants' fixations, suggesting that the systematicity in these youngest infants' fixations was explained by their attention to physically salient regions. By 12 months, in contrast, the consistency between infants was greater than the variance accounted for by salience, suggesting that the systematicity in older infants' fixations reflected more than their attention to physically salient regions. Together these results show that infants' fixations when viewing natural scenes becomes more systematic and predictable, and that predictability is due to their attention to features other than physical salience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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22
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Prunty JE, Keemink JR, Kelly DJ. Infants scan static and dynamic facial expressions differently. INFANCY 2021; 26:831-856. [PMID: 34288344 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12426] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Revised: 07/02/2021] [Accepted: 07/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Despite being inherently dynamic phenomena, much of our understanding of how infants attend and scan facial expressions is based on static face stimuli. Here we investigate how six-, nine-, and twelve-month infants allocate their visual attention toward dynamic-interactive videos of the six basic emotional expressions, and compare their responses with static images of the same stimuli. We find infants show clear differences in how they attend and scan dynamic and static expressions, looking longer toward the dynamic-face and lower-face regions. Infants across all age groups show differential interest in expressions, and show precise scanning of regions "diagnostic" for emotion recognition. These data also indicate that infants' attention toward dynamic expressions develops over the first year of life, including relative increases in interest and scanning precision toward some negative facial expressions (e.g., anger, fear, and disgust).
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - David J Kelly
- School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
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23
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Abstract
Understanding how the young infant brain starts to categorize the flurry of ambiguous sensory inputs coming in from its complex environment is of primary scientific interest. Here, we test the hypothesis that senses other than vision play a key role in initiating complex visual categorizations in 20 4-mo-old infants exposed either to a baseline odor or to their mother's odor while their electroencephalogram (EEG) is recorded. Various natural images of objects are presented at a 6-Hz rate (six images/second), with face-like object configurations of the same object categories (i.e., eliciting face pareidolia in adults) interleaved every sixth stimulus (i.e., 1 Hz). In the baseline odor context, a weak neural categorization response to face-like stimuli appears at 1 Hz in the EEG frequency spectrum over bilateral occipitotemporal regions. Critically, this face-like-selective response is magnified and becomes right lateralized in the presence of maternal body odor. This reveals that nonvisual cues systematically associated with human faces in the infant's experience shape the interpretation of face-like configurations as faces in the right hemisphere, dominant for face categorization. At the individual level, this intersensory influence is particularly effective when there is no trace of face-like categorization in the baseline odor context. These observations provide evidence for the early tuning of face-(like)-selective activity from multisensory inputs in the developing brain, suggesting that perceptual development integrates information across the senses for efficient category acquisition, with early maturing systems such as olfaction driving the acquisition of categories in later-developing systems such as vision.
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24
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Keemink JR, Jenner L, Prunty JE, Wood N, Kelly DJ. Eye Movements and Behavioural Responses to Gaze-Contingent Expressive Faces in Typically Developing Infants and Infant Siblings. Autism Res 2020; 14:973-983. [PMID: 33170549 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2432] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2020] [Revised: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 10/21/2020] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Studies with infant siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder have attempted to identify early markers for the disorder and suggest that autistic symptoms emerge between 12 and 24 months of age. Yet, a reliable first-year marker remains elusive. We propose that in order to establish first-year manifestations of this inherently social disorder, we need to develop research methods that are sufficiently socially demanding and realistically interactive. Building on Keemink et al. [2019, Developmental Psychology, 55, 1362-1371], we employed a gaze-contingent eye-tracking paradigm in which infants could interact with face stimuli. Infants could elicit emotional expressions (happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, anger) from on-screen faces by engaging in eye contact. We collected eye-tracking data and video-recorded behavioural response data from 122 (64 male, 58 female) typically developing infants and 31 infant siblings (17 male, 14 female) aged 6-, 9- and 12-months old. All infants demonstrated a significant Expression by AOI interaction (F(10, 1470) = 10.003, P < 0.001, ŋp 2 = 0.064). Infants' eye movements were "expression-specific" with infants distributing their fixations to AOIs differently per expression. Whereas eye movements provide no evidence of deviancies, behavioural response data show significant aberrancies in reciprocity for infant siblings. Infant siblings show reduced social responsiveness at the group level (F(1, 147) = 4.10, P = 0.042, ŋp 2 = 0.028) and individual level (Fischer's Exact, P = 0.032). We conclude that the gaze-contingency paradigm provides a realistically interactive experience capable of detecting deviancies in social responsiveness early, and we discuss our results in relation to subsequent infant sibling development. LAY SUMMARY: We investigated how infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder respond to interactive faces presented on a computer screen. Our study demonstrates that infant siblings are less responsive when interacting with faces on a computer screen (e.g., they smile and imitate less) in comparison to infants without an older sibling with autism. Reduced responsiveness within social interaction could potentially have implications for how parents and carers interact with these infants. Autism Res 2021, 14: 973-983. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jolie R Keemink
- University of Kent, School of Psychology, Keynes College, Canterbury, Kent, UK
| | - Lauren Jenner
- University of Kent, School of Psychology, Keynes College, Canterbury, Kent, UK
| | - Jonathan E Prunty
- University of Kent, School of Psychology, Keynes College, Canterbury, Kent, UK
| | - Nicky Wood
- East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, Canterbury, Kent, UK
| | - David J Kelly
- University of Kent, School of Psychology, Keynes College, Canterbury, Kent, UK
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25
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Pyykkö J, Ashorn U, Chilora E, Maleta K, Ashorn P, Leppänen JM. Associations between individual variations in visual attention at 9 months and behavioral competencies at 18 months in rural Malawi. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0239613. [PMID: 33002053 PMCID: PMC7529224 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239613] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2020] [Accepted: 09/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Theoretical and empirical considerations suggest that individual differences in infant visual attention correlate with variations in cognitive skills later in childhood. Here we tested this hypothesis in infants from rural Malawi (n = 198-377, depending on analysis), who were assessed with eye tracking tests of visual orienting, anticipatory looks, and attention to faces at 9 months, and more conventional tests of cognitive control (A-not-B), motor, language, and socioemotional development at 18 months. The results showed no associations between measures of infant attention at 9 months and cognitive skills at 18 months, either in analyses linking infant visual orienting with broad cognitive outcomes or analyses linking specific constructs between the two time points (i.e., switching of anticipatory looks and manual reaching responses), as correlations varied between -0.08 and 0.14. Measures of physical growth, and family socioeconomic characteristics were also not correlated with cognitive outcomes at 18 months in the current sample (correlations between -0.10 and 0.19). The results do not support the use of the current tests of infant visual attention as a predictive tool for 18-month-old infants' cognitive skills in the Malawian setting. The results are discussed in light of the potential limitations of the employed infant tests as well as potentially unique characteristics of early cognitive development in low-resource settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juha Pyykkö
- Center for Child Health Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
| | - Ulla Ashorn
- Center for Child Health Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
| | - Eletina Chilora
- Department of Public Health, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Malawi, Blantyre, Malawi
| | - Kenneth Maleta
- Department of Public Health, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Malawi, Blantyre, Malawi
| | - Per Ashorn
- Center for Child Health Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
- Department of Paediatrics, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
| | - Jukka M. Leppänen
- Infant Cognition Laboratory, Center for Child Health Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
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26
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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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27
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Tuulari JJ, Kataja EL, Leppänen JM, Lewis JD, Nolvi S, Häikiö T, Lehtola SJ, Hashempour N, Saunavaara J, Scheinin NM, Korja R, Karlsson L, Karlsson H. Newborn left amygdala volume associates with attention disengagement from fearful faces at eight months. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2020; 45:100839. [PMID: 32836078 PMCID: PMC7451600 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100839] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2019] [Revised: 06/26/2020] [Accepted: 08/12/2020] [Indexed: 02/09/2023] Open
Abstract
After 5 months of age, infants begin to prioritize attention to fearful over other facial expressions. One key proposition is that amygdala and related early-maturing subcortical network, is important for emergence of this attentional bias - however, empirical data to support these assertions are lacking. In this prospective longitudinal study, we measured amygdala volumes from MR images in 65 healthy neonates at 2-5 weeks of gestation corrected age and attention disengagement from fearful vs. non-fearful facial expressions at 8 months with eye tracking. Overall, infants were less likely to disengage from fearful than happy/neutral faces, demonstrating an age-typical bias for fear. Left, but not right, amygdala volume (corrected for intracranial volume) was positively associated with the likelihood of disengaging attention from fearful faces to a salient lateral distractor (r = .302, p = .014). No association was observed with the disengagement from neutral or happy faces in equivalent conditions (r = .166 and .125, p = .186 and .320, respectively). These results are the first to link the amygdala volume with the emerging perceptual vigilance for fearful faces during infancy. They suggest a link from the prenatally defined variability in the amygdala size to early postnatal emotional and social traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jetro J Tuulari
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Turku Collegium for Science and Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK (Sigrid Juselius Fellowship), United Kingdom.
| | - Eeva-Leena Kataja
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland; Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland; Infant Cognition Laboratory, Center for Child Health Research, School of Medicine, University of Tampere, Finland
| | - Jukka M Leppänen
- Infant Cognition Laboratory, Center for Child Health Research, School of Medicine, University of Tampere, Finland
| | - John D Lewis
- Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Saara Nolvi
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland; Turku Institute for Advanced Studies, Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku, Finland
| | - Tuomo Häikiö
- Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland
| | - Satu J Lehtola
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland
| | - Niloofar Hashempour
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland
| | - Jani Saunavaara
- Department of Medical Physics, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
| | - Noora M Scheinin
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Riikka Korja
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland; Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland
| | - Linnea Karlsson
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland; Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Department of Child Psychiatry, Finland; Centre for Population Health Research, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Finland
| | - Hasse Karlsson
- The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland; Department of Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; Centre for Population Health Research, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Finland
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28
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Prunty JE, Jackson KC, Keemink JR, Kelly DJ. Caucasian Infants' Attentional Orienting to Own- and Other-Race Faces. Brain Sci 2020; 10:E53. [PMID: 31963429 PMCID: PMC7016870 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci10010053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2019] [Revised: 01/09/2020] [Accepted: 01/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Infants show preferential attention toward faces and detect faces embedded within complex naturalistic scenes. Newborn infants are insensitive to race, but rapidly develop differential processing of own- and other-race faces. In the present study, we investigated the development of attentional orienting toward own- and other-race faces embedded within naturalistic scenes. Infants aged six-, nine- and twelve-months did not show differences in the speed of orienting to own- and other race faces, but other-race faces held infants' visual attention for longer. We also found a clear developmental progression in attentional capture and holding, with older infants orienting to faces faster and fixating them for longer. Results are interpreted within the context of the two-process model of face processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan E. Prunty
- School of Psychology, Keynes College, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NP, UK; (J.E.P.); (J.R.K.)
| | - Kelsey C. Jackson
- Seattle Children’s Innovative Technologies Lab, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, WA 98105, USA;
| | - Jolie. R. Keemink
- School of Psychology, Keynes College, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NP, UK; (J.E.P.); (J.R.K.)
| | - David J. Kelly
- School of Psychology, Keynes College, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NP, UK; (J.E.P.); (J.R.K.)
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29
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Pyykkö J, Ashorn P, Ashorn U, Niehaus DJH, Leppänen JM. Cross-cultural analysis of attention disengagement times supports the dissociation of faces and patterns in the infant brain. Sci Rep 2019; 9:14414. [PMID: 31595014 PMCID: PMC6783433 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-51034-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2019] [Accepted: 09/24/2019] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Infants are slower to disengage from faces than non-face patterns when distracted by novel competing stimuli. While this perceptual predilection for faces is well documented, its universality and mechanisms in relation to other aspects of attention are poorly understood. We analysed attention disengagement times for faces and non-face patterns in a large sample of 6-to 9-month-old infants (N = 637), pooled from eye tracking studies in socioculturally diverse settings (Finland, Malawi, South Africa). Disengagement times were classified into distinct groups of quick and delayed/censored responses by unsupervised clustering. Delayed disengagement was frequent for faces (52.1% of trials), but almost negligible for patterns (3.9% of trials) in all populations. The magnitude of this attentional bias varied by individuals, whereas the impact of situational factors and facial expression was small. Individual variations in disengagement from faces were moderately stable within testing sessions and independent from variations in disengagement times for patterns. These results point to a fundamental dissociation of face and pattern processing in infants and demonstrate that the bias for faces can be robust against distractors and habituation. The results raise the possibility that attention to faces varies as an independent, early-emerging social trait in populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juha Pyykkö
- Center for Child Health Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
| | - Per Ashorn
- Center for Child Health Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
- Department of Paediatrics, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
| | - Ulla Ashorn
- Center for Child Health Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
| | - Dana J H Niehaus
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Jukka M Leppänen
- Infant Cognition Laboratory, Center for Child Health Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
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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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Frost-Karlsson M, Galazka MA, Gillberg C, Gillberg C, Miniscalco C, Billstedt E, Hadjikhani N, Åsberg Johnels J. Social scene perception in autism spectrum disorder: An eye-tracking and pupillometric study. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2019; 41:1024-1032. [DOI: 10.1080/13803395.2019.1646214] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Morgan Frost-Karlsson
- Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, Sahlgrenska academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | | | - Christopher Gillberg
- Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, Sahlgrenska academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Carina Gillberg
- Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, Sahlgrenska academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Carmela Miniscalco
- Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, Sahlgrenska academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Eva Billstedt
- Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, Sahlgrenska academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Nouchine Hadjikhani
- Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, Sahlgrenska academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Harvard Medical School/MGH/MIT, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jakob Åsberg Johnels
- Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, Sahlgrenska academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Section for Speech and Language Pathology, Sahlgrenska academy University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
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