Brain Responses to Faces and Facial Expressions in 5-Month-Olds: An fNIRS Study

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Renata Di Lorenzo¹  Anna Blasi³  Caroline Junge¹  Carlijn van den Boomen¹  Rianne van Rooijen¹  Chantal Kemner¹ 

[1] Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University;Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University;Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, United Kingdom;Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Centre

关键词: functional near-infrared spectroscopy;    infancy;    emotion processing;    face processing;    right hemisphere;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01240

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Processing faces and understanding facial expressions are crucial skills for social communication. In adults, basic face processing and facial emotion processing rely on specific interacting brain networks. In infancy, however, little is known about when and how these networks develop. The current study uses functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure differences in 5-month-olds’ brain activity in response to fearful and happy facial expressions. Our results show that the right occipital region responds to faces, indicating that the face processing network is activated at 5 months. Yet sensitivity to facial emotions appears to be still immature at this age: explorative analyses suggest that if the facial emotion processing network was active this would be mainly visible in the temporal cortex. Together these results indicate that at 5 months, occipital areas already show sensitivity to face processing, while the facial emotion processing network seems not fully developed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY