Is visual attraction for human eyes present at birth?
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1
Université Pierre Mendès-France, France
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2
Università degli Studi di Padova, Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Italy
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3
University of Toronto, Canada
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4
University of Delaware, Department of Psychology, United States
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5
Kyoto University, Section of Language and Intelligence, Japan
From birth, infants have an early attraction to human faces that has been hypothesized due to an attraction toward the human eyes (Farroni et al., 2005). Human eye is unique and particular as compared to non-human primates and other animals; it is composed of a widely exposed white sclera, paler than the facial skin and iris (Kobayashi & Kohshima, 1997). In adults, at least one ERP study has shown that proficiency for the human species involves visual expertise for human eyes (Itier, Van Roon, & Alain, 2011).
The current study aimed to investigate the importance and attraction for human eyes in newborns and older infants and determine when it appears during the first year of life.
In a preferential looking time paradigm, newborns, 3-, 6-, and 9-month-olds were simultaneously presented with a pair of non-human primate faces (chimpanzees and Barbarian macaques) that differed only by the presence versus absence of human eyes, pairing a face with original non-human primate eyes with the same face in which eyes were replaced by human eyes. Using non-primate faces have the advantage of presenting stimuli with a structure similar to human faces while avoiding interference from the overall structure of the human face.
Results show preference for faces with human eyes from 6 months. No preference was observed before that age. It suggests that visual expertise for human eyes is not present at birth, but seems to emerge later in development when more visual experience with conspecifics has occurred.
References
Farroni, T., Johnson, M. H., Menon, E., Zulian, L., Faraguna, D., & Csibra, G. (2005). Newborns' preference for face-relevant stimuli: effects of contrast polarity. [Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(47), 17245-17250.
Itier, R. J., Van Roon, P., & Alain, C. (2011). Species sensitivity of early face and eye processing. Neuroimage, 54(1), 705-713.
Kobayashi, H., & Kohshima, S. (1997). Unique morphology of the human eye. [Comparative Study
Letter]. Nature, 387(6635), 767-768.
Keywords:
developmental approach,
Behavior,
Looking Time,
face processing,
human eyes
Conference:
ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 29 Nov - 2 Dec, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Emotion and Social
Citation:
Dupierrix
E,
Hillairet De Boisferon
A,
Méary
D,
Di Giorgio
E,
Simion
F,
Lee
K,
Quinn
PC,
Tomonaga
M and
Pascalis
O
(2012). Is visual attraction for human eyes present at birth?.
Conference Abstract:
ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.208.00141
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Received:
14 Oct 2012;
Published Online:
17 Nov 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Olivier Pascalis, Université Pierre Mendès-France, Grenoble Cedex 9, 38040, France, olivier.pascalis@upmf-grenoble.fr