Facial expressions and facial features are crucial to recognition and conversation in our day to day lives. Often times, we recall/identify an individual based on their facial characteristics and often times we may not even know their name; however, their face is stored in our brain so vividly. This ability to recognize faces and the mechanisms of facial processing has been studied in adults. Despite these extensive studies in adults, facial processing studies in infants has not been studied intensively. In both “Face-sensitive brain responses in the first year of life” written by Conte et. al and New York Time’s article “How Children Learn to Recognize Faces” by Dr. Perri Klass, researchers further knowledge about the development of face processing in children and the effects of disrupting facial development in infants.
In the article “Face-sensitive brain responses in the first year of life” researchers investigate face processing during infants with 132 infant participants. The main goal of the study is to determine if there is a region in the brain involved with facial processing and if this region is the same as the region of the brain responsible for face and facial processing in adults. Researchers examined ERP (event-related potential) responses of infants when presented stimuli of either an object or a face on the screen. The specific responses examined in this study including N290, P1, P400, and Nc. Through the trials and data collection, it was found that there was a significant N290 peak present for human faces. This means that there was greater N290 amplitude when the infant was presented an image of a human face (whether it be their mother’s face or a stranger’s face) than when presented an image of an object. This N290 response is localized in the middle/posterior fusiform gyri. Comparing infants aged 4.5 months to 12 months, it was discovered that the N290 amplitude increased with age as well. Lastly, researchers suggest that “by the end of the first year of life the N290 likely represents the electrophysiological marker of face-processing in infants” (Conte et al, 2020, p. 16).
In the New York Times article, “How Children Learn to Recognize Faces,” Dr. Klass discusses the two different kinds of visual information used to recognize faces and the effect of disrupting facial development process in children. The two kinds of visual information are feature information and configural information. Young children tend to utilize feature information like “the size of the eyes, the size and shape of the nose, the presence and color of a beard” (Klass). These characteristics change over time, for example, one may shave their beard, which really impacts small children. The child may be depending on the characteristic of the beard on their father to recognize him and this change may put the child in a dilemma of where their father disappeared. As a child ages, however, they begin to utilize configural information which include “the distance between the features and their relations to the contour of the face” (Klass). These characteristics of a human’s face do not really change for which are characteristics that developed adults also use to recognize and remember a face. However, as a young infant, facial processing is often dependent on feature information. So, wearing Halloween costumes, fake accessories, and makeup may confuse the infant. In relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks are a must everywhere we travel. The act of covering up one’s face from an infant may disrupt their facial recognition development. However, for safety of our own and infants, wearing masks is very important and the conflicts can be overcome with exposure with infant at home.
Both articles demonstrate the importance and development process of facial recognition in infants. Conte et. al focus on the activation of certain parts of the brain to locate the region responsible for facial recognition and why faces lead to a greater activation that objects. Dr. Klass furthers on the developmental process of facial recognition and focuses on the effects of changing one’s facial appearance in front of an infant still in the developmental process of facial recognition. Both studies depict the importance of facial expression and recognition in an infant’s life which may lead to numerous further studies on this developmental process.
Works Cited:
Conte, S., Richards, J. E., Guy, M. W., Xie, W., & Roberts, J. E. (2020). Face-sensitive brain responses in the first year of life. NeuroImage, 211, 1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116602
Klass, P. (2018, October 29). How Children Learn to Recognize Faces. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/well/family/how-children-learn-to-recognize-faces.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment