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

Tricia Striano | Zendy; Franziska Kopp | Zendy; Tobias Großmann | Zendy; Vincent M. Reid | Zendy

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

Author(s) -

Tricia Striano,

Franziska Kopp,

Tobias Großmann,

Vincent M. Reid

Publication year - 2006

Publication title -

social cognitive and affective neuroscience

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.229

H-Index - 103

eISSN - 1749-5024

pISSN - 1749-5016

DOI - 10.1093/scan/nsl008

Subject(s) - psychology , gaze , facial expression , eye contact , emotional expression , eye tracking , eye movement , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , expression (computer science) , communication , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science , psychoanalysis , programming language

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.

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