A behavioural and ERP investigation of 3-month-olds’ face preferences

Recent behavioural work suggests that newborns' face preferences are derived from a general, non-specific attentional bias toward patterns with more features in the upper versus lower half. In the current study, we predicted that selectivity for the specific geometry of the face may emerge during the first 3 months of life as a product of perceptual narrowing, leading to the construction of the first broadly defined face category segregating faces from other visual objects which may share with faces one or more visual properties. This was investigated behaviourally, using a standard preferential looking paradigm, and electrophysiologically, using high-density ERPs. Behavioural results indicated that, at 3 months, the top-heavy property is no longer a crucial factor in determining face preferences. ERP results showed evidence of differentiation between the two stimuli only for the N700. No differentiation was found for earlier components that are thought to reflect the adult-like structural encoding stage of face processing in infants (N290 and P400). Together, ERP and behavioural results suggest that, by 3 months, the perceptual narrowing process has led to a behavioural response specific to the geometry of the human face, but that this response is not purely perceptual in nature. Rather, it seems related to the acquired salience of this stimulus category, which may reflect the high degree of familiarity and/or the social value faces have gained over the infants' first 3 months of life.

[1]  Alan Slater,et al.  The development of face processing in infancy and early childhood: current perspectives , 2001 .

[2]  Mark H. Johnson,et al.  Cortical specialisation for face processing: face-sensitive event-related potential components in 3- and 12-month-old infants , 2003, NeuroImage.

[3]  Mark H. Johnson,et al.  Developing cortical specialization for visual-cognitive function: The case of face recognition , 2001 .

[4]  O. Pascalis,et al.  Is Face Processing Species-Specific During the First Year of Life? , 2002, Science.

[5]  F. Simion,et al.  Non-specific perceptual biases at the origins of face processing , 2003 .

[6]  J. Haxby,et al.  The distributed human neural system for face perception , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[7]  S. de Schonen,et al.  Hemispheric Asymmetry in Face Processing in Infancy , 1986 .

[8]  C. Umilta,et al.  Face preference at birth. , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[9]  Christine Deruelle,et al.  Do the right and left hemispheres attend to the same visuospatial information within a face in infancy , 1998 .

[10]  Mark H Johnson,et al.  Face-sensitive cortical processing in early infancy. , 2004, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[11]  C. Nelson,et al.  Recognition of the mother's face by six-month-old infants: a neurobehavioral study. , 1997, Child development.

[12]  D. Maurer,et al.  Infants' perception of natural and distorted arrangements of a schematic face. , 1981, Child development.

[13]  C. Umilta,et al.  Newborns’ preference for up–down asymmetrical configurations , 2002 .

[14]  C. Nelson,et al.  Brain activity differentiates face and object processing in 6-month-old infants. , 1999, Developmental psychology.

[15]  R. L. Fantz,et al.  Pattern vision in young infants , 1958 .

[16]  Mark H. Johnson,et al.  Biology and Cognitive Development: The Case of Face Recognition , 1993 .

[17]  Christine Deruelle,et al.  Hemispheric asymmetries in visual pattern processing in infancy , 1991, Brain and Cognition.

[18]  N. Fox,et al.  Social perception in infants , 1985 .

[19]  Martha J. Farah,et al.  The Cognitive Neuroscience of Vision , 2000 .

[20]  E. W. Ames,et al.  INFANTS' PREFERENCES FOR FACIAL ARRANGEMENTS: A FAILURE TO REPLICATE , 1968 .

[21]  Carlo Umiltà,et al.  Newborns' preference for faces: what is crucial? , 2002, Developmental psychology.

[22]  B. Mazoyer,et al.  Neural Correlates of Woman Face Processing by 2-Month-Old Infants , 2002, NeuroImage.

[23]  A. Young,et al.  Aspects of face processing , 1986 .

[24]  Mark H. Johnson,et al.  Eye contact detection in humans from birth , 2002, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[25]  D. Berlyne.  The influence of the albedo and complexity of stimuli on visual fixation in the human infant. , 1958, British journal of psychology.

[26]  C. Nelson.  The Development and Neural Bases of Face Recognition , 2001 .

[27]  R. Schmidt,et al.  Progress in Sensory Physiology , 1991, Progress in Sensory Physiology.

[28]  C. Nelson,et al.  Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience , 2001 .

[29]  S. Carey,et al.  Why faces are and are not special: an effect of expertise. , 1986 .

[30]  K. Thomas,et al.  Delayed recognition memory in infants and adults as revealed by event-related potentials. , 1998, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[31]  J L Dannemiller,et al.  A critical test of infant pattern preference models. , 1988, Child development.

[32]  Mark H. Johnson,et al.  Functional brain development in infants: elements of an interactive specialization framework. , 2000, Child development.

[33]  Olivier Pascalis,et al.  Specialization of Neural Mechanisms Underlying Face Recognition in Human Infants , 2002, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[34]  A. Norcia,et al.  Event-related brain potentials to human faces in infants. , 1981, Child Development.

[35]  John E Richards,et al.  Attention affects the recognition of briefly presented visual stimuli in infants: an ERP study. , 2003, Developmental science.

[36]  N. Logothetis,et al.  IS FACE RECOGNITION NOT SO UNIQUE AFTER ALL? , 2000, Cognitive neuropsychology.

[37]  Irene Leo,et al.  Three-month-olds' visual preference for faces and its underlying visual processing mechanisms. , 2005, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[38]  John E Richards,et al.  Familiarization, attention, and recognition memory in infancy: an event-related potential and cortical source localization study. , 2005, Developmental psychology.

[39]  M. Farah,et al.  EARLY COMMITMENT OF NEURAL SUBSTRATES FOR FACE RECOGNITION , 2000, Cognitive neuropsychology.

[40]  A. Young,et al.  Understanding face recognition. , 1986, British journal of psychology.

[41]  F. Simion,et al.  Can a Nonspecific Bias Toward Top-Heavy Patterns Explain Newborns' Face Preference? , 2004, Psychological science.

[42]  Charles A. Nelson.  Electrophysiological correlates of memory development in the first year of life. , 1997 .

[43]  T. Allison,et al.  Electrophysiological Studies of Face Perception in Humans , 1996, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[44]  Mark H. Johnson,et al.  Newborns' preferential tracking of face-like stimuli and its subsequent decline , 1991, Cognition.

[45]  D. Maurer,et al.  Face Perception During Early Infancy , 1999 .

[46]  W. Skrandies.  The Upper and Lower Visual Field of Man: Electrophysiological and Functional Differences , 1987 .

[47]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Mechanisms of cognitive development : behavioral and neural perspectives , 2001 .

[48]  Mark H Johnson,et al.  Development of face-sensitive event-related potentials during infancy: a review. , 2003, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[49]  N. Kanwisher,et al.  The Fusiform Face Area: A Module in Human Extrastriate Cortex Specialized for Face Perception , 1997, The Journal of Neuroscience.