Newborns' preference for face-relevant stimuli: Effects of contrast polarity

Teresa Farroni, Mark H. Johnson, Enrica Menon, Luisa Zulian, Dino Faraguna, Gergely Csibra

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

There is currently no agreement as to how specific or general are the mechanisms underlying newborns' face preferences. We address this issue by manipulating the contrast polarity of schematic and naturalistic face-related images and assessing the preferences of newborns. We find that for both schematic and naturalistic face images, the contrast polarity is important. Newborns did not show a preference for an upright face-related image unless it was composed of darker areas around the eyes and mouth. This result is consistent with either sensitivity to the shadowed areas of a face with overhead (natural) illumination and/or to the detection of eye contact.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)17245-17250
Number of pages6
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume102
Issue number47
DOIs
StatePublished - 22 Nov 2005
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Eye contact
  • Face processing

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