Dynamic facial expressions of emotions are discriminated at birth.

Margaret Addabbo,Chiara Turati,Elena Longhi,Ioana Cristina Marchis,Paolo Tagliabue,Cosimo Urgesi

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0193868

Abstract

The ability to discriminate between different facial expressions is fundamental since the first stages of postnatal life. The aim of this study is to investigate whether 2-days-old newborns are capable to discriminate facial expressions of emotions as they naturally take place in everyday interactions, that is in motion. When two dynamic displays depicting a happy and a disgusted facial expression were simultaneously presented (i.e., visual preference paradigm), newborns did not manifest any visual preference (Experiment 1). Nonetheless, after being habituated to a happy or disgusted dynamic emotional expression (i.e., habituation paradigm), newborns successfully discriminated between the two (Experiment 2). These results indicate that at birth newborns are sensitive to dynamic faces expressing emotions.

Highlights

We are born with a natural propensity to communicate our internal states through facial expressions: we wrinkle our nose and elevate the upper lip when we experience disgust while raising the corners of the mouth is a visible evidence of joy
In the present study we have tackled the intriguing question of whether in the first stages of postnatal life newborns are able to discriminate between dynamic displays of emotional facial expressions
We have demonstrated that the absence of a preference response in Experiment 1 wasn’t explained by a general inability at birth to discriminate between the two dynamic

Summary

Introduction

We are born with a natural propensity to communicate our internal states through facial expressions: we wrinkle our nose and elevate the upper lip when we experience disgust while raising the corners of the mouth is a visible evidence of joy. Complex facial movements begin to develop already within the confines of the womb [1, 2]. By performing these facial movements the fetus provides himself with crucial motor experience for the subsequent emergence of a number of vital functions essential after birth, like breast feeding and vocalizing [3, 4]. Little has been done to investigate this ability at birth

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