Di Lorenzo, R;
Blasi, A;
Junge, C;
Van den Boomen, C;
Van Rooijen, R;
Kemner, C;
(2019)
Brain Responses to Faces and Facial Expressions in 5-Month-Olds: An fNIRS Study.
Frontiers in Psychology
, 10
, Article 1240. 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01240.
Preview |
Text
Blasi Ribera_Brain Responses to Faces and Facial Expressions in 5-Month-Olds.; An fNIRS Study_VoR.pdf - Published Version Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Processing faces and understanding facial expressions are crucial skills for social communication. In adults, basic face processing and facial emotion processing rely on specific interacting brain networks. In infancy, however, little is known about when and how these networks develop. The current study uses functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure differences in 5-month-olds’ brain activity in response to fearful and happy facial expressions. Our results show that the right occipital region responds to faces, indicating that the face processing network is activated at 5 months. Yet sensitivity to facial emotions appears to be still immature at this age: explorative analyses suggest that if the facial emotion processing network was active this would be mainly visible in the temporal cortex. Together these results indicate that at 5 months, occipital areas already show sensitivity to face processing, while the facial emotion processing network seems not fully developed.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Brain Responses to Faces and Facial Expressions in 5-Month-Olds: An fNIRS Study |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01240 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01240 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2019 Di Lorenzo, Blasi, Junge, van den Boomen, van Rooijen and Kemner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Keywords: | functional near-infrared spectroscopy, infancy, emotion processing, face processing, right hemisphere |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Med Phys and Biomedical Eng |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10082341 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
