Sensitivity to face animacy and inversion in childhood: Evidence from EEG data.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Adults struggle processing artificial faces compared to real ones, impacting AI development.
• The developmental path of artificial face perception remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate the developmental trajectory of inanimate face processing in children and adults.
• Determine if artificial face processing relies on expert strategies using face inversion.
• Examine sensitivity to face animacy and its neural correlates across age groups.

Main Methods:

• Used electroencephalography (EEG) to record brain activity in 5-10-year-old children and adults.
• Employed a face inversion paradigm with real and doll faces (upright/inverted).
• Analyzed event-related potentials (N170) and used multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA).

Main Results:

• Larger N170 amplitudes were observed for doll faces across all age groups and orientations.
• N170 sensitivity to face animacy emerges by 5-7 years old.
• Face orientation was decodable in children and adults; animacy was decodable in adults but not children from whole-scalp EEG.

Conclusions:

• Children aged 5-10 show neural sensitivity to face animacy, comparable to adults in some aspects.
• This sensitivity may not involve the same high-level, expert processing seen in adults.
• Findings inform the design of artificial social agents and developmental face perception research.