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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome

Published on: July 31, 2016

Innate face processing.

Yoichi Sugita¹

¹Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Tokyo, Japan. y.sugita@aist.go.jp

Current Opinion in Neurobiology

|April 3, 2009

Summary

Newborn macaques prefer faces over objects and can imitate facial gestures, suggesting innate face recognition abilities. This indicates face processing may be a specialized system present from birth, not solely learned through experience.

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Developmental Psychology
Comparative Cognition

Background:

The origin of face processing—whether innate or experience-dependent—remains a key question in cognitive science.
Previous research has explored face recognition in various species, but the innate capabilities of non-human primates are less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether face processing in macaque monkeys is a specialized perceptual ability present at birth.
To determine if newborns exhibit preferences for faces and possess facial imitation skills before extensive visual experience.

Main Methods:

Observational studies on newborn macaque monkeys.
Preference tests comparing responses to faces versus non-face objects.
Assessment of facial gesture imitation capabilities.

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Main Results:

Newborn macaques demonstrated a preference for faces over non-face objects prior to any visual face exposure.
Macaque newborns exhibited impressive face processing abilities for both human and monkey faces.
Newborns were capable of imitating human facial gestures, suggesting a mechanism for matching observed to executed movements.

Conclusions:

The findings strongly suggest that face processing is an innate, specialized ability in macaque monkeys.
Newborns appear to possess an intrinsic understanding of facial structure, likely acquired through proprioception.
This innate predisposition facilitates the recognition and attraction to faces without prior visual experience.