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Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Advance Access originally published online on July 26, 2006
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2006 1(2):87-94; doi:10.1093/scan/nsl008
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© The Author (2006). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Eye contact influences neural processing of emotional expressions in 4-month-old infants

Tricia Striano1,2, Franziska Kopp1,3, Tobias Grossmann1,4 and Vincent M. Reid1

1Neurocognition and Development Group, Center for Advanced Studies, University of Leipzig, Germany & Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, 2Department of Pediatrics and Kennedy Center for Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA, 3Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany,and 4Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, School of Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK

Eye gaze is a fundamental component of human communication. During the first post-natal year, infants rapidly learn that the gaze of others provides socially significant information. In addition, infants are sensitive to several emotional expressions. However, little is known regarding how eye contact influences the way the infant brain processes emotional expressions. We measured 4-month-old infants’ brain electric activity to assess neural processing of faces displaying neutral, happy and angry emotional expressions when accompanied by direct and averted eye gaze. The results show that processing of angry facial expressions was influenced by eye gaze. In particular, infants showed enhanced neural processing of angry expressions when these expressions were accompanied by direct eye gaze. These results show that by 4 months of age, the infant detects angry emotional expressions, and the infant brain processes their relevance to the self.

Keywords: infants; EEG; eye gaze; social cognition; ERP

Correspondence should be addressed to Tricia Striano, Neurocognition and Development Group, Center for Advanced Studies, University of Leipzig, Otto-Schill-Strasse 1, Leipzig 04109, Germany. E-mail: Striano{at}cbs.mpg.de


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