How long before babies recognize faces

Overall, the general visual pattern- learning mechanism seems to operate on non-face-like, face-like configurations and real faces and is thought to be sensitive to those coarse visual cues of a face or non-face stimuli strictly dependent on LSF that convey configural information.

Indeed, evidence demonstrated that the visual information newborns use to process and recognize a face is triggered by low-rather than high-spatial frequencies de Heering et al. Basically, this is due to the fact that, configural information, is processed mainly by the right hemisphere de Schonen and Mathivet, ; Deruelle and de Schonen, , ; de Schonen et al.

Deprivation of early visual input to the right hemisphere, due to a bilateral congenital cataract, led to impaired configural processing Le Grand et al. Since the right hemisphere matures before and at a faster rate than the left hemisphere, newborns and young infants are sensitive to configural information more than to features in both faces and non-faces de Schonen and Mathivet, Employing hierarchical patterns in which larger figures i. However, recognition of the local features was impaired in the condition when information at the global level interfered with identification of the local features Macchi Cassia et al.

This asymmetrical interference might be used to interpret the inversion effect obtained in the inner features condition with faces. That is, when the face is in the upright orientation newborns encode both levels i. Collectively, findings reported here demonstrated that newborns are sensitive to configural information both to faces and non-faces stimuli due to constraints of their visual system.

However, since in adults configural processing is specific for faces and it has been attributed to the extensive experience with faces during lifetime, from a developmental point of view it seems crucial to investigate when faces start to become special and start to be processed differently from objects see Hoel and Peykarjou, Some studies demonstrated that infants start to process differently upright and inverted faces within the first months of life, providing evidence for an early face inversion effect.

For instance, Turati et al. At a neural level, two ERP components i. ERPs studies conducted with 6-month-old infants revealed that the P, a precursor of the adult N, was modulated by inversion already at this age: inverted faces demonstrated greater amplitude negativity than upright faces Webb and Nelson, ; de Haan et al.

Interestingly, although there are no behavioral studies that directly compare inversion effect for faces vs. Further studies demonstrated that, starting in early childhood, the stimulus inversion affects disproportionately faces compared to objects Picozzi et al. As for the composite face effect, a recent study reported, for the first time, that 3-month-old infants, as well as adults, process faces holistically. Specifically, infants have shown to be more accurate in recognizing the familiar top-half of a face in the misaligned condition as compared to the aligned condition Turati et al.

Interestingly, although both adults and infants showed the composite face effect, their performance differed in the misaligned condition. In effect, adults looked longer at the novel top half, whereas infants looked longer at the familiar top half.

This result demonstrates that the tuning toward configural information appears very early in life, but experience progressively refines early configural strategies in face processing. Employing the same composite face paradigm and extending previous findings Carey and Diamond, ; Mondloch et al. Intriguingly, all the studies reported here confirm that visual experience is critical for the typical development of face processing.

However, at present how early visual experience shapes the neural mechanisms underlying face processing is not well understood. In light of this, future studies should be conducted to better understand what kind of visual experience is more effective to render the face processing system specialized and the sensitive periods during development see Scott et al. A more recent ERP study conducted with infants from 6 to 9 months has attempted to answer this question.

In this study, a neural specialization indexed by a different modulation of P for upright compared to inverted monkey faces, was found in infants who have received a training of 3 months with monkey faces labeled at the individual-level i. Infants in this group showed an inversion effect for monkey faces. In contrast, no effects were found in infants who received a training with the same monkey faces labeled at the categorical-level i.

Taken together, the studies reviewed here demonstrated that at birth, due to the presence of certain constraints of the visual system e. Then, during development, thanks to the specific visual experience with certain kind of stimuli, the system becomes specialized to process differently objects and social stimuli. Overall, the studies carried out with newborns demonstrated the presence, since birth, of pre-wired domain relevant attentional biases toward faces and the role of experience in shaping the face processing system.

As for face detection, here we suggest that faces are not special visual stimuli for newborns and that a specific face-sensitive mechanism is not required to explain face preference since birth.

The reviewed evidence speaks in favor of the hypothesis that faces might be preferred at birth because they are a collection of preferred structural i. Consequently, the debate is still open and further studies need to be carried out to disentangle the question about general or specific biases underlying face preference at birth. Further, it seems relevant to investigate whether the activation of the subcortical route in newborns and in adults, putatively active throughout the lifespan Tomalski et al.

In addition, future studies are needed on the nature of face representation at birth because we are far from a conclusive answer about the best stimulus that elicits face preference at birth.

Some controversial studies about the effect of contrast polarity Farroni et al. In particular, electrophysiological studies are needed to investigate how the infant brain works during development in response to faces.

In the same vein, how and when faces become special stimuli and start to be processed differently from objects are intriguing open questions. Future studies should directly compare visual processing strategies employed for faces and for objects by using the same paradigms at different time points during development in order to track a developmental trajectory of the face processing specialization.

One of the main purpose that guides such research should be to increase the knowledge about the typical developmental trajectories in order to identify infants who deviate from them i. Overall, the evidence is consistent in demonstrating a progressive functional and neural specialization of the face-system. The data reviewed here speak in favor of the idea that, in order to develop in its adult-like expert form, the face-system may not require a highly specific input i.

Rather, it is plausible to hypothesize that the presence of some domain-relevant attentional biases at birth is sufficient to set up and to drive the system toward the gradual and progressive structural and functional specialization that emerges later during the development thanks to the visual experience that infants have in their species-specific environment. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Front Psychol v. Front Psychol. Published online Jul 9. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Reviewed by: Andrew H. Xiao, University of Toronto, Canada. This article was submitted to Perception Science, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Received Mar 28; Accepted Jun The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author s or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice.

No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract From birth it is critical for our survival to identify social agents and conspecifics. Keywords: face perception, face processing, early infancy, perceptual narrowing, visual experience.

Introduction The ability to detect and to discriminate social beings from inanimate objects is of paramount importance to survive. Open in a separate window. Developmental Changes in Face Representation Behavioral evidence supports the idea that face representation changes over development and that experience allows infants to build up a specific representation of experienced faces and to categorize faces within a face space Valentine, ; Valentine et al.

How Newborns and Infants Recognize Faces This part of the paper will discuss how faces are recognized and whether the computations to encode, store and retrieve information are special for faces since birth.

Conclusion Overall, the studies carried out with newborns demonstrated the presence, since birth, of pre-wired domain relevant attentional biases toward faces and the role of experience in shaping the face processing system. Conflict of Interest Statement The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Eye contact detection in humans from birth. When creating and updating content, we rely on credible sources: respected health organizations, professional groups of doctors and other experts, and published studies in peer-reviewed journals. We believe you should always know the source of the information you're seeing. Learn more about our editorial and medical review policies.

Bigelow A et al. Published Updated February Baby's Vision Development. Updated Aug. Your Baby's Vision: 1 Month. Your Baby's Vision: 4 to 7 Months. Fetuses respond to father's voice but prefer mother's voice after birth. Developmental Psychobiology. Published online July 2, McKone E et al. In Gazzaniga Ed. Minagawa-Kawai Y et al. Cerebral Cortex. Published online May 30, ;19 2 : The Senses and Your 1- to 3-Month-Old. Reviewed September Don't feel rejected if they turn away; tiny babies often get tired when they interact.

Newborns can hear, and have been hearing noises from well before they were born. Newborns have immature eye muscles and, while they can see particularly at close range , they can't organise the visual images into meaningful shapes. Developmental characteristics include:. Infants in the first eight weeks have no control over their movements and all their physical activity is involuntary or reflex.

They move their bodies while they are awake, but they do not yet know how to make each part of their body move, or even that all the bits belong to them. For the newborn, crying is their only means of communication. It is important to respond to your baby as soon as possible, so they begin to understand that you will be there for them. Characteristics of speech include:. All children are different and develop at different rates, so if your baby doesn't do all the things listed in this article, it may be because they are working on some different area of learning and development.

However, if your baby is very different from other children, or if you are worried about their development or it seems to go backwards, seek the advice of a health professional. Signs that could suggest a developmental problem include:. This page has been produced in consultation with and approved by:. Children should always be closely supervised near animals and taught how to behave safely around pets. You can help your child overcome anxiety by taking their fears seriously and encouraging them to talk about their feelings.

Pregnant women with asthma need to continue to take their asthma medication as it is important to the health of both mother and baby that the mother's asthma is well managed.

Most injuries to babies do not occur by chance - many are predictable and largely preventable. Some children are unsettled the first few nights in a 'big bed'. Try to be patient, loving and reassuring.

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