Face-sensitive cortical processing in early infancy

Hanife Halit, Gergely Csibra, Ágnes Volein, Mark H. Johnson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

Background: Debates about the developmental origins of adult face processing could be directly addressed if a clear infant neural marker could be identified. Previous research with infants remains open to criticism regarding the control stimuli employed. Methods: We recorded ERPs from adults and 3-month-old infants while they watched faces and matched visual noise stimuli. Results: We observed similar amplitude enhancement for faces in the infant N290 and adult N170. In contrast, the infant P400 showed only a latency effect, making it unlikely to be the main precursor of the adult N170. Conclusions: We conclude that there is some degree of specificity of cortical processing of faces as early as 3 months of age.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1228-1234
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines
Volume45
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2004
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Event-related potentials
  • Face perception
  • Infants
  • N170

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