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Face perception
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==Early development== Despite numerous studies, there is no widely accepted time-frame in which the average human develops the ability to perceive faces. ===Ability to discern faces from other objects=== Many studies have found that infants will give preferential attention to faces in their visual field, indicating they can discern faces from other objects. * While newborns will often show particular interest in faces at around three months of age, that preference slowly disappears, re-emerges late during the first year, and slowly declines once more over the next two years of life.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Libertus|first1=Klaus|last2=Landa|first2=Rebecca J.|last3=Haworth|first3=Joshua L.|title=Development of Attention to Faces during the First 3 Years: Influences of Stimulus Type|journal=Frontiers in Psychology|date=17 November 2017|volume=8|pages=1976|doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01976|pmid=29204130|pmc=5698271 |doi-access=free}}</ref> * While newborns show a preference to faces as they grow older (specifically between one and four months of age) this interest can be inconsistent.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Maurer|first1=D.|year=1985|chapter=Infants' Perception of Facedness|pages=73–100|editor1-last=Field|editor1-first=Tiffany|editor2-last=Fox|editor2-first=Nathan A.|title=Social Perception in Infants|publisher=Ablex Publishing Corporation|isbn=978-0-89391-231-4 }}</ref> * Infants turning their heads towards faces or face-like images suggest rudimentary facial processing capacities.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Morton|first1=John|last2=Johnson|first2=Mark H.|title=CONSPEC and CONLERN: A two-process theory of infant face recognition.|journal=Psychological Review|date=1991|volume=98|issue=2|pages=164–181|doi=10.1037/0033-295x.98.2.164|pmid=2047512|citeseerx=10.1.1.492.8978 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Fantz|first1=Robert L.|title=The Origin of Form Perception|journal=Scientific American|date=May 1961|volume=204|issue=5|pages=66–73|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0561-66|pmid=13698138|bibcode=1961SciAm.204e..66F }}</ref> * The re-emergence of interest in faces at three months is likely influenced by a child's motor abilities.<ref name=Libertus11>{{cite journal|last1=Libertus|first1=Klaus|last2=Needham|first2=Amy|title=Reaching experience increases face preference in 3-month-old infants: Face preference and motor experience|journal=Developmental Science|date=November 2011|volume=14|issue=6|pages=1355–64|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01084.x|pmid=22010895|pmc=3888836 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Libertus|first1=Klaus|last2=Needham|first2=Amy|title=Face preference in infancy and its relation to motor activity|journal=International Journal of Behavioral Development|date=November 2014|volume=38|issue=6|pages=529–538|doi=10.1177/0165025414535122|s2cid=19692579 }}</ref> ===Ability to detect emotion in the face=== [[File:Emotions according to the Atlas of Personality, Emotion and Behaviour.svg|alt=Lineart depicting various emotions.|thumb|Examples of various emotions]] At around seven months of age, infants show the ability to discern faces by emotion. However, whether they have fully developed [[emotion recognition]] is unclear. Discerning visual differences in facial expressions is different to understanding the [[valence (psychology)|valence]] of a particular emotion. * Seven-month-olds seem capable of associating emotional prosodies with facial expressions. When presented with a happy or angry face, followed by an emotionally neutral word read in a happy or angry tone, their [[event-related potential]]s follow different patterns. Happy faces followed by angry vocal tones produce more changes than the other incongruous pairing, while there was no such difference between happy and angry congruous pairings. The greater reaction implies that infants held greater expectations of a happy vocal tone after seeing a happy face than an angry tone following an angry face.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Crossmodal integration of emotional information from face and voice in the infant brain|journal = [[Developmental Science]]|volume = 9|issue = 3|pages = 309–315|date=May 2006|doi = 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00494.x|pmid = 16669802|last2 = Striano|last3 = Friederici|author1 = Tobias Grossmann|s2cid = 41871753|author-link1 = Tobias Grossmann|doi-access = free}}</ref> * By the age of seven months, children are able to recognize an angry or fearful facial expression, perhaps because of the [[threat]]-salient nature of the emotion. Despite this ability, newborns are not yet aware of the emotional content encoded within facial expressions.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Farroni|first1=Teresa|last2=Menon|first2=Enrica|last3=Rigato|first3=Silvia|last4=Johnson|first4=Mark H.|title=The perception of facial expressions in newborns|journal=European Journal of Developmental Psychology|date=March 2007|volume=4|issue=1|pages=2–13|doi=10.1080/17405620601046832|pmid=20228970|pmc=2836746 }}</ref> * Infants can comprehend facial expressions as [[social cues]] representing the feelings of other people before they are a year old. Seven-month-old infants show greater negative central components to angry faces that are looking directly at them than elsewhere, although the gaze of fearful faces produces no difference. In addition, two [[event-related potential]]s in the posterior part of the brain are differently aroused by the two negative expressions tested. These results indicate that infants at this age can partially understand the higher level of threat from [[anger]] directed at them.<ref name="Stefanie Hoehl & Tricia Striano 2008 1752–1760" /> They also showed activity in the occipital areas.<ref name="Stefanie Hoehl & Tricia Striano 2008 1752–1760"> {{Cite journal|author = [[Stefanie Hoehl]] & [[Tricia Striano]]|title = Neural processing of eye gaze and threat-related emotional facial expressions in infancy|journal = [[Child Development (journal)|Child Development]]|volume = 79|issue = 6|pages = 1752–60|date=November–December 2008|doi = 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01223.x|pmid = 19037947|last2 = Striano|s2cid = 766343 }} </ref> * Five-month-olds, when presented with an image of a [[fearful]] expression and a [[Happiness|happy]] expression, exhibit similar [[event-related potential]]s for both. However, when seven-month-olds are given the same treatment, they focus more on the fearful face. This result indicates increased cognitive focus toward fear that reflects the threat-salient nature of the emotion.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Peltola|first1=Mikko J.|last2=Leppänen|first2=Jukka M.|last3=Mäki|first3=Silja|last4=Hietanen|first4=Jari K.|title=Emergence of enhanced attention to fearful faces between 5 and 7 months of age|journal=Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience|date=1 June 2009|volume=4|issue=2|pages=134–142|doi=10.1093/scan/nsn046|pmid=19174536|pmc=2686224 }}</ref> Seven-month-olds regard happy and [[sadness|sad]] faces as distinct emotive categories.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite journal|title = Categorical representation of facial expressions in the infant brain|journal = [[Infancy (journal)|Infancy]]|volume = 14|issue = 3|pages = 346–362|date=May 2009|doi = 10.1080/15250000902839393|pmid = 20953267|last1 = Leppanen|first1 = Jukka|last2 = Richmond|first2 = Jenny|last3 = Vogel-Farley|first3 = Vanessa|last4 = Moulson|first4 = Margaret|last5 = Nelson|first5 = Charles|pmc = 2954432}}</ref> * By seven months, infants are able to use facial expressions to understand others' behavior. Seven-month-olds look to use facial cues to understand the motives of other people in ambiguous situations, as shown in a study where infants watched the experimenter's face longer if the experimenter took a toy from them and maintained a neutral expression, as opposed to if the experimenter made a happy expression.<ref>{{Cite journal|author = [[Tricia Striano]] & [[Amrisha Vaish]]|title = Seven- to 9-month-old infants use facial expressions to interpret others' actions|journal = [[British Journal of Developmental Psychology]]|volume = 24|pages = 753–760|year = 2010|doi = 10.1348/026151005X70319|issue = 4|last2 = Vaish|s2cid = 145375636 }}</ref> When infants are exposed to faces, it varies depending on factors including facial expression and eye gaze direction.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="Stefanie Hoehl & Tricia Striano 2008 1752–1760"/> * Emotions likely play a large role in our social interactions. The perception of a positive or [[negative emotion]] on a face affects the way that an individual perceives and processes that face. A face that is perceived to have a negative emotion is processed in a less holistic manner than a face displaying a positive emotion.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Curby|first=K.M.|author2=Johnson, K.J.|author3=Tyson A.|title=Face to face with emotion: Holistic face processing is modulated by emotional state|journal=Cognition and Emotion|year= 2012|volume= 26|issue= 1|pages= 93–102|doi= 10.1080/02699931.2011.555752|pmid= 21557121|s2cid=26475009}}</ref> * While seven-month-olds have been found to focus more on fearful faces, a study found that "happy expressions elicit enhanced sympathetic arousal in infants" both when facial expressions were presented subliminally and in a way that the infants were consciously aware of the stimulus.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Jessen|first1=Sarah|last2=Altvater-Mackensen|first2=Nicole|last3=Grossmann|first3=Tobias|date=1 May 2016|title=Pupillary responses reveal infants' discrimination of facial emotions independent of conscious perception|journal=Cognition|volume=150|pages=163–9|doi=10.1016/j.cognition.2016.02.010|pmid=26896901|s2cid=1096220}}</ref> Conscious awareness of a stimulus is not connected to an infant's reaction.<ref name=":0" /> ===Ability to recognize familiar faces=== It is unclear when humans develop the ability to recognize familiar faces. Studies have varying results, and may depend on multiple factors (such as continued exposure to particular faces during a certain time period). * Early perceptual experience is crucial to the development of adult visual perception, including the ability to identify familiar people and comprehend facial expressions. The capacity to discern between faces, like language{{how so|date=April 2021}}, appears to have broad potential in early life that is whittled down to the kinds of faces experienced in early life.<ref name="Charles A. Nelson 2001 3–18">{{Cite journal|author=Charles A. Nelson|author-link=Charles A. Nelson|date=March–June 2001|title=The development and neural bases of face recognition|journal=[[Infant and Child Development]]|volume=10|issue=1–2|pages=3–18|citeseerx=10.1.1.130.8912|doi=10.1002/icd.239}}</ref> * The neural substrates of face perception in infants are similar to those of adults, but the limits of child-safe imaging technology currently obscure specific information from subcortical areas<ref name="Emi Nakato, Yumiko Otsuka, So Kanazawa, Masami K. Yamaguchi & Ryusuke Kakigi 2011 1600–1606">{{Cite journal|title = Distinct differences in the pattern of hemodynamic response to happy and angry facial expressions in infants--a near-infrared spectroscopic study|journal = [[NeuroImage]]|volume = 54|issue = 2|pages = 1600–6|date=January 2011|doi = 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.09.021|pmid = 20850548|last2 = Otsuka|last3 = Kanazawa|last4 = Yamaguchi|last5 = Kakigi|author1 = Emi Nakato|s2cid = 11147913|author-link1 = Emi Nakato}}</ref> like the [[amygdala]], which is active in adult facial perception. They also showed activity near the [[fusiform gyrus]],<ref name="Emi Nakato, Yumiko Otsuka, So Kanazawa, Masami K. Yamaguchi & Ryusuke Kakigi 2011 1600–1606"/> * Healthy adults likely process faces via a retinotectal (subcortical) pathway.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Awasthi B|author2=Friedman J|author3=Williams, MA|title=Processing of low spatial frequency faces at periphery in choice reaching tasks|journal=Neuropsychologia|volume = 49|issue = 7|pages = 2136–41|year = 2011|doi = 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.03.003|pmid=21397615|s2cid=7501604 }}</ref> * Infants can discern between [[macaque]] faces at six months of age, but, without continued exposure, cannot do so at nine months of age. If they were shown photographs of macaques during this three-month period, they were more likely to retain this ability.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Plasticity of face processing in infancy|journal = [[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]]|volume = 102|issue = 14|pages = 5297–5300|date=April 2005|doi = 10.1073/pnas.0406627102|pmid = 15790676|pmc = 555965|last2 = Scott|last3 = Kelly|last4 = Shannon|last5 = Nicholson|last6 = Coleman|last7 = Nelson|author1 = O. Pascalis|author-link1 = O. Pascalis|bibcode = 2005PNAS..102.5297P |doi-access = free}}</ref> * Faces "convey a wealth of information that we use to guide our social interactions".<ref name="Jeffery 2011 799–815">{{cite journal|last=Jeffery|first=L.|author2=Rhodes, G.|title=Insights into the development of face recognition mechanisms revealed by face aftereffects|journal=British Journal of Psychology|year= 2011|volume=102|issue=4|pages=799–815|doi=10.1111/j.2044-8295.2011.02066.x|pmid=21988385}}</ref> They also found that the neurological mechanisms responsible for face recognition are present by age five. Children process faces is similar to that of adults, but adults process faces more efficiently. The may be because of advancements in memory and cognitive functioning.<ref name="Jeffery 2011 799–815"/> * Interest in the social world is increased by interaction with the physical environment. They found that training three-month-old infants to reach for objects with [[Velcro]]-covered "sticky mitts" increased the attention they pay to faces compared to moving objects through their hands and control groups.<ref name=Libertus11/> ===Ability to 'mimic' faces=== A commonly disputed topic is the age at which we can mimic facial expressions. * Infants as young as two days are capable of mimicking an adult, able to note details like mouth and eye shape as well as move their own muscles to produce similar patterns.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Field|first1=T.|last2=Woodson|first2=R|last3=Greenberg|first3=R|last4=Cohen|first4=D|title=Discrimination and imitation of facial expression by neonates|journal=Science|date=8 October 1982|volume=218|issue=4568|pages=179–181|doi=10.1126/science.7123230|pmid=7123230|bibcode=1982Sci...218..179F }}</ref> * However, the idea that infants younger than two could mimic [[facial expressions]] was disputed by Susan S. Jones, who believed that infants are unaware of the emotional content encoded within [[facial expressions]], and also found they are not able to imitate [[facial expressions]] until their second year of life. She also found that mimicry emerged at different ages.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Jones|first1=Susan S.|title=The development of imitation in infancy|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|date=27 August 2009|volume=364|issue=1528|pages=2325–35|doi=10.1098/rstb.2009.0045|pmid=19620104|pmc=2865075 }}</ref>
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