文章基本信息

标题：Brain Responses to Faces and Facial Expressions in 5-Month-Olds: An fNIRS Study
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作者：Di Lorenzo, Renata ; Blasi, Anna ; Junge, Caroline 等
期刊名称：Frontiers in Psychology
电子版ISSN：1664-1078
出版年度：2019
卷号：10
页码：1-8
DOI：10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01240
出版社：Frontiers Media
摘要：Processing faces and understanding facial expressions is a crucial skill 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 five months. Yet sensitivity to facial emotions appears to be still immature at this age: explorative analyses suggest that if the facial emotion processing network is active this would be mainly visible in the temporal cortex. Together these results indicate that at five months, occipital areas already show face processing skills, while the facial emotion processing network seems not fully developed.
关键词：functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS); Infancy; emotion processing; face processing; right hemisphere