Our ability to recognize facial characteristics and derive meaning from facial expressions is an essential feature of human communication. It is highly supported that such a skill is cultivated and developed during early infancy when brain maturation and growth are particularly sensitive. However, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the usage of face masks has become the norm. Although these masks may not significantly hinder socialization amongst adolescents and adults, the extent to which they impact the neurological and behavioral development of infants is unclear. Will the infants born during the Coronavirus pandemic maintain normal brain development regarding social abilities, or will the prevalence of face mask usage pose a significant challenge to the proper growth of cognitive function in infants?
In Dr. Maggie Guy’s research article, “Face-sensitive responses in the first year of life,” the abilities of facial and object recognition in infants are examined, revealing a fascinating preferential pattern in visual recognition by babies. Dr. Guy’s experiment involved infants between the ages of 4 and 12 months and utilized EEG to compare and contrast how the subjects would respond to different visual stimuli. In the testing phase, subjects could either be presented with pictures of faces or various objects. ECG was used to assess changes in attention so that the researchers could only focus on trials when the infants were fully attending to the screen presenting the visual stimuli. Analysis of the obtained ERP data highlighted that a greater response in the N290 and Nc ERP components were observed in response to faces versus object images in all participant groups (Guy et. al.). Furthermore, N290, Nc, and P400 component responses were seen to increase linearly with age, highlighting that visual and object recognition abilities are improved as the infant brain becomes more and more developed (Guy et. al.). Even more interestingly, greater Nc responses were observed in infants when presented with their mother’s face as opposed to a stranger’s face, suggesting a relational or emotional feature of facial recognition (Guy et. al.). These results highlight that the infant brain is more sensitive to facial stimuli as opposed to object stimuli. Furthermore, the correlation between ERP component strength and age as well as ERP component strength and images of the mothers’ faces as opposed to an object highlight that there is a significant developmental feature of facial recognition in infants between the ages of 4 and 12 months.
It’s clear that recognition of faces is a significant characteristic of the infant visual system and is continually strengthened as the infant grows. However, the question remains: what kind of effect may the prominent use of face masks in the current day have on the neurological development of infants? In the journal paper, “The implications of face masks for babies and families during the COVID-19 pandemic: A discussion paper” by Green et. al., the effect of face coverings on the neurological development of babies is brought into question. Through a discussion of various developmental theories underlying our understanding of human growth, the authors suggest that the prevalence of face masks may pose a threat to the normal neurological development and socialization of infants. The paper highlights that the first few years of human maturation include a multitude of significant developmental benchmarks. For example, at only 5 months old, babies have the ability to make connections between visual expressions of emotion and vocal expressions of emotion (Green et. al.). Furthermore, by 3 years a child’s brain has reached about 80% of its adult volume and by 5 years children can recognize and understand facial expressions with almost full competency (Green et. al.). Thus, it is clear that infancy and early adolescence are times of highly sensitive neurological development. However, the paper highlights that an essential feature of early parent-child connection is wordless interaction (Green et. al.). Since a newborn cannot communicate verbally, emotional and social expressions will primarily be conveyed through changes in facial expression and some verbal communication by the parents. Thus, relationships of bonding, the tie of a mother to her baby; and attachment, the tie of the baby to its mother, ultimately develop as the child learns to associate certain expressions or sounds with positive or negative responses. However, under the context of the Coronavirus pandemic, masks may pose a significant barrier to the development of this ability of association in the baby. Finally, the paper discusses that there is a strong neurological basis for quality caregiving and its impact on infant brain development. The authors highlight MRI research of infants and the correlation between mother-infant interaction and brain volume (Green et.al.). In this study, evidence suggested that brain development and its relationship to the prevalence of maternal connection is highly sensitive early on (Green et. al.). Thus, the paper proposes that the barrier that masks create between the infant and its mother can cause stress responses in the child, leading to unhealthy elevations in cortisol and translating to long-term impairments neurological development (Green et. al.).
In Dr. Guy’s research, infants between the ages of 4 months and 1 year old were found to exhibit stronger neurological responses to facial stimuli versus object stimuli. Furthermore, the relationship of the face to the child modulates this response, as ERP signals were more sensitive to pictures of the subjects’ mothers in comparison to images of strangers. Thus, her research revealed that recognition of faces is an essential feature of the infant visual system. However, in Green et. al.’s paper discussing the implications of face mask usage on neurological development, there is strong evidence and theory implicating the impairment of parent-infant communication and thus negative impacts on the development of these infants’ response to facial stimuli due to increasing face mask usage. The COVID-19 virus has had drastic impacts on families around the world and face masks are a step toward returning toward normality. However, it is still important to consider how drastic changes in societal norms can have more far-reaching impacts than we may initially expect.
Conte, Stefania, et al. “Face-Sensitive Brain Responses in the First Year of Life.” NeuroImage,
vo. 211, May 2020, Science Direct, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/
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Bromley et. al. “The implications of face masks for babies and families during the COVID-19
pandemic: A discussion paper”. Journal of Neonatal Nursing, vo. 27 no. 1, February 2021, pp. 21-25. Science Direct, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/
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