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

Renata Di Lorenzo1,2, Anna Blasi3, Caroline Junge1,2

  • 1Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.

Frontiers in Psychology
|June 14, 2019
PubMed

Insights

At 5 months old, infants show brain activity in response to faces, indicating early face processing. However, their ability to understand facial emotions appears underdeveloped, with potential activity in the temporal cortex.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental neuroscience
  • Social cognition
  • Infant brain development

Background:

  • Facial processing and emotion recognition are vital for social interaction in adults.
  • Specific brain networks support these functions in adults.
  • The developmental trajectory of these networks in infancy remains largely unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural basis of face and facial emotion processing in 5-month-old infants.
  • To determine the developmental stage of face and facial emotion processing networks in early infancy.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure brain activity.
  • Examined brain responses in 5-month-old infants exposed to fearful and happy facial expressions.

Main Results:

  • The right occipital region showed significant activation in response to faces, confirming early face processing network development.
  • Exploratory analyses suggested potential, yet immature, activity in the temporal cortex related to facial emotion processing.

Conclusions:

  • Infants at 5 months demonstrate sensitivity to faces, with activation in the occipital cortex.
  • The facial emotion processing network appears to be not fully developed at this age, suggesting a later maturation timeline.

Keywords:
emotion processingface processingfunctional near-infrared spectroscopyinfancyright hemisphere

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