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Neonatal imitation predicts how infants engage with faces
Author(s) -
Paukner Annika,
Simpson Elizabeth A.,
Ferrari Pier F.,
Mrozek Timothy,
Suomi Stephen J.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/desc.12207
Subject(s) - imitation , psychology , gesture , macaque , developmental psychology , facial expression , avatar , cognitive psychology , communication , social psychology , neuroscience , linguistics , philosophy , theology
In human infants, neonatal imitation and preferences for eyes are both associated with later social and communicative skills, yet the relationship between these abilities remains unexplored. Here we investigated whether neonatal imitation predicts facial viewing patterns in infant rhesus macaques. We first assessed infant macaques for lipsmacking (a core affiliative gesture) and tongue protrusion imitation in the first week of life. When infants were 10–28 days old, we presented them with an animated macaque avatar displaying a still face followed by lipsmacking or tongue protrusion movements. Using eye tracking technology, we found that macaque infants generally looked equally at the eyes and mouth during gesture presentation, but only lipsmacking‐imitators showed significantly more looking at the eyes of the neutral still face. These results suggest that neonatal imitation performance may be an early measure of social attention biases and might potentially facilitate the identification of infants at risk for atypical social development.