Is visual attraction for human eyes present at birth?

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Is visual attraction for human eyes present at birth? Eve Dupierrix1, Anne Hillairet De Boisferon1, David Méary1, Elisa Di Giorgio2, Francesca Simion2, Kang Lee3, Paul C. Quinn4, Masaki Tomonaga5 and Olivier Pascalis1* 1 Université Pierre Mendès-France, France 2 Università degli Studi di Padova, Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Italy 3 University of Toronto, Canada 4 University of Delaware, Department of Psychology, United States 5 Kyoto University, Section of Language and Intelligence, Japan From birth, infants have an early attraction to human faces that has been hypothesized due to an attraction toward the human eyes (Farroni et al., 2005). Human eye is unique and particular as compared to non-human primates and other animals; it is composed of a widely exposed white sclera, paler than the facial skin and iris (Kobayashi & Kohshima, 1997). In adults, at least one ERP study has shown that proficiency for the human species involves visual expertise for human eyes (Itier, Van Roon, & Alain, 2011). The current study aimed to investigate the importance and attraction for human eyes in newborns and older infants and determine when it appears during the first year of life. In a preferential looking time paradigm, newborns, 3-, 6-, and 9-month-olds were simultaneously presented with a pair of non-human primate faces (chimpanzees and Barbarian macaques) that differed only by the presence versus absence of human eyes, pairing a face with original non-human primate eyes with the same face in which eyes were replaced by human eyes. Using non-primate faces have the advantage of presenting stimuli with a structure similar to human faces while avoiding interference from the overall structure of the human face. Results show preference for faces with human eyes from 6 months. No preference was observed before that age. It suggests that visual expertise for human eyes is not present at birth, but seems to emerge later in development when more visual experience with conspecifics has occurred. References Farroni, T., Johnson, M. H., Menon, E., Zulian, L., Faraguna, D., & Csibra, G. (2005). Newborns' preference for face-relevant stimuli: effects of contrast polarity. [Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(47), 17245-17250. Itier, R. J., Van Roon, P., & Alain, C. (2011). Species sensitivity of early face and eye processing. Neuroimage, 54(1), 705-713. Kobayashi, H., & Kohshima, S. (1997). Unique morphology of the human eye. [Comparative Study Letter]. Nature, 387(6635), 767-768. Keywords: developmental approach, Behavior, Looking Time, face processing, human eyes Conference: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 29 Nov - 2 Dec, 2012. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Emotion and Social Citation: Dupierrix E, Hillairet De Boisferon A, Méary D, Di Giorgio E, Simion F, Lee K, Quinn PC, Tomonaga M and Pascalis O (2012). Is visual attraction for human eyes present at birth?. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.208.00141 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 14 Oct 2012; Published Online: 17 Nov 2012. * Correspondence: Prof. Olivier Pascalis, Université Pierre Mendès-France, Grenoble Cedex 9, 38040, France, olivier.pascalis@upmf-grenoble.fr Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Eve Dupierrix Anne Hillairet De Boisferon David Méary Elisa Di Giorgio Francesca Simion Kang Lee Paul C Quinn Masaki Tomonaga Olivier Pascalis Google Eve Dupierrix Anne Hillairet De Boisferon David Méary Elisa Di Giorgio Francesca Simion Kang Lee Paul C Quinn Masaki Tomonaga Olivier Pascalis Google Scholar Eve Dupierrix Anne Hillairet De Boisferon David Méary Elisa Di Giorgio Francesca Simion Kang Lee Paul C Quinn Masaki Tomonaga Olivier Pascalis PubMed Eve Dupierrix Anne Hillairet De Boisferon David Méary Elisa Di Giorgio Francesca Simion Kang Lee Paul C Quinn Masaki Tomonaga Olivier Pascalis Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.