Eye contact influences neural processing of emotional expressions in 4-month-old infants

Striano, Tricia and Kopp, Franziska and Grossmann, Tobias and Reid, Vincent M. (2006) Eye contact influences neural processing of emotional expressions in 4-month-old infants. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 1 (2). pp. 87-94. ISSN 1749-5016

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Abstract

Eye gaze is a fundamental component of human communication. During the first post-natal year, infants rapidly learn that the gaze of others provides socially significant information. In addition, infants are sensitive to several emotional expressions. However, little is known regarding how eye contact influences the way the infant brain processes emotional expressions. We measured 4-month-old infants' brain electric activity to assess neural processing of faces displaying neutral, happy and angry emotional expressions when accompanied by direct and averted eye gaze. The results show that processing of angry facial expressions was influenced by eye gaze. In particular, infants showed enhanced neural processing of angry expressions when these expressions were accompanied by direct eye gaze. These results show that by 4 months of age, the infant detects angry emotional expressions, and the infant brain processes their relevance to the self.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/researchoutput/libraryofcongress/bf
Subjects:
?? INFANTS EEG EYE GAZE SOCIAL COGNITION ERPPSYCHOLOGYCOGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCEEXPERIMENTAL AND COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGYBF PSYCHOLOGY ??
ID Code:
58372
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
23 Oct 2012 13:09
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
18 Sep 2023 00:35