Abstract
ObjectiveTo develop new standardized eye tracking based measures and metrics for infants’ gaze dynamics in the face-distractor competition paradigm.MethodEye tracking data were collected from two samples of healthy 7-month-old (total n = 45), as well as one sample of 5-month-old infants (n = 22) in a paradigm with a picture of a face or a non-face pattern as a central stimulus, and a geometric shape as a lateral stimulus. The data were analyzed by using conventional measures of infants’ initial disengagement from the central to the lateral stimulus (i.e., saccadic reaction time and probability) and, additionally, novel measures reflecting infants gaze dynamics after the initial disengagement (i.e., cumulative allocation of attention to the central vs. peripheral stimulus).ResultsThe results showed that the initial saccade away from the centrally presented stimulus is followed by a rapid re-engagement of attention with the central stimulus, leading to cumulative preference for the central stimulus over the lateral stimulus over time. This pattern tended to be stronger for salient facial expressions as compared to non-face patterns, was replicable across two independent samples of 7-month-old infants, and differentiated between 7 and 5 month-old infants.ConclusionThe results suggest that eye tracking based assessments of infants’ cumulative preference for faces over time can be readily parameterized and standardized, and may provide valuable techniques for future studies examining normative developmental changes in preference for social signals.SignificanceStandardized measures of early developing face preferences may have potential to become surrogate biomarkers of neurocognitive and social development.
Highlights
IntroductionThe emergence of core attention processes (e.g., visuospatial orienting) and preferential attention to social cues (e.g., faces) during the first postnatal months provide foundations for cognitive and social brain networks, and may be critical in initiating the developmental process that leads to a full repertoire of human social skills [1]
The emergence of core attention processes and preferential attention to social cues during the first postnatal months provide foundations for cognitive and social brain networks, and may be critical in initiating the developmental process that leads to a full repertoire of human social skills [1]
It is interesting to note that recent development of semi- or fully automated eye tracking systems based on infrared reflections from the cornea has provided laboratories with more objective indices of infant gaze behavior [6], and that these methods have been successfully used to measure infants’ visuospatial orienting [3], [4], [7], [8] and attention to the eyes [5] or faces [2] in complex social scenes
Summary
The emergence of core attention processes (e.g., visuospatial orienting) and preferential attention to social cues (e.g., faces) during the first postnatal months provide foundations for cognitive and social brain networks, and may be critical in initiating the developmental process that leads to a full repertoire of human social skills [1]. The endeavors to characterize the early development of attention and face preferences in infants are critically dependent on methods that i) can be successfully implemented with poorly cooperating infants of various postnatal ages, ii) enable standardized and, preferably, automated acquisition of metrics for the cognitive processes of interest, and iii) will eventually allow sufficient norms to be collected for the measures of interest to effectively characterize the performance of individual infants In this context, it is interesting to note that recent development of semi- or fully automated eye tracking systems based on infrared reflections from the cornea has provided laboratories with more objective indices of infant gaze behavior [6], and that these methods have been successfully used to measure infants’ visuospatial orienting [3], [4], [7], [8] and attention to the eyes [5] or faces [2] in complex social scenes. Sensitivity to faces and facial expressions in the overlap paradigm emerges at 5 and 7 months of age and is manifested as a delayed latency and reduced probability of gaze shifts in the context of faces, when the face displays a fearful expression [12]–[14]
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