Hemispheric Asymmetry in Face Processing in Infancy

Abstract

Besides the interest for the development per se of face processing, developmental studies can be considered as offering the opportunity to get access to basic questions involved in face processing that may be masked, but not suppressed, in the adult by the occurrence of other kinds of processing. The absence, for instance of operational language, of cultural knowledge and habits, may in some way simplify the question. Infants constitute from this point of view a simpler model than adults. Of course this claim relies on the assumption that the processes at work in infancy are still at work in adulthood but that they are merely more difficult to disentangle from processes that have developed later on. This assumption is plausible. It is known that some behaviour as well as some organs disappear totally in the course of development. However the behaviour or organs that have been observed as disappearing serve functions that also disappear during ontogeny (such as behaviour exhibited during hatching for instance). Since face and physiognomy processing correspond to a set of functions that are, on the contrary, to be developed and used throughout life, it is sensible to believe that face processing in infancy is somehow related to the same processes in adults.