Infant neural sensitivity to eye gaze depends on early experience of gaze communication
A fundamental question in functional brain development is how the brain acquires specialised processing optimised for its individual environment. The current study is the first to demonstrate that distinct experience of eye gaze communication, due to the visual impairment of a parent, affects the sp...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2018-11-01
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| Series: | Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187892931730138X |
| _version_ | 1819295117677166592 |
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| author | Angélina Vernetti Nataşa Ganea Leslie Tucker Tony Charman Mark H. Johnson Atsushi Senju |
| author_facet | Angélina Vernetti Nataşa Ganea Leslie Tucker Tony Charman Mark H. Johnson Atsushi Senju |
| author_sort | Angélina Vernetti |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A fundamental question in functional brain development is how the brain acquires specialised processing optimised for its individual environment. The current study is the first to demonstrate that distinct experience of eye gaze communication, due to the visual impairment of a parent, affects the specificity of brain responses to dynamic gaze shifts in infants. Event-related potentials (ERPs) from 6 to 10 months old sighted infants with blind parents (SIBP group) and control infants with sighted parents (CTRL group) were recorded while they observed a face with gaze shifting Toward or Away from them. Unlike the CTRL group, ERPs of the SIBP group did not differentiate between the two directions of gaze shift. Thus, selective brain responses to perceived gaze shifts in infants may depend on their eye gaze communication experience with the primary caregiver. This finding highlights the critical role of early communicative experience in the emerging functional specialisation of the human brain. Keywords: Eye gaze, Event-related potential, Infant study, Social experience, Non-verbal communication |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-24T04:37:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5c162296bdf24a5cb561180f45201d8e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1878-9293 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-24T04:37:07Z |
| publishDate | 2018-11-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-5c162296bdf24a5cb561180f45201d8e2022-12-21T17:15:04ZengElsevierDevelopmental Cognitive Neuroscience1878-92932018-11-013416Infant neural sensitivity to eye gaze depends on early experience of gaze communicationAngélina Vernetti0Nataşa Ganea1Leslie Tucker2Tony Charman3Mark H. Johnson4Atsushi Senju5Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UKCentre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UKCentre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UKDepartment of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UKCentre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK; Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UKCentre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK; Corresponding author.A fundamental question in functional brain development is how the brain acquires specialised processing optimised for its individual environment. The current study is the first to demonstrate that distinct experience of eye gaze communication, due to the visual impairment of a parent, affects the specificity of brain responses to dynamic gaze shifts in infants. Event-related potentials (ERPs) from 6 to 10 months old sighted infants with blind parents (SIBP group) and control infants with sighted parents (CTRL group) were recorded while they observed a face with gaze shifting Toward or Away from them. Unlike the CTRL group, ERPs of the SIBP group did not differentiate between the two directions of gaze shift. Thus, selective brain responses to perceived gaze shifts in infants may depend on their eye gaze communication experience with the primary caregiver. This finding highlights the critical role of early communicative experience in the emerging functional specialisation of the human brain. Keywords: Eye gaze, Event-related potential, Infant study, Social experience, Non-verbal communicationhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187892931730138X |
| spellingShingle | Angélina Vernetti Nataşa Ganea Leslie Tucker Tony Charman Mark H. Johnson Atsushi Senju Infant neural sensitivity to eye gaze depends on early experience of gaze communication Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience |
| title | Infant neural sensitivity to eye gaze depends on early experience of gaze communication |
| title_full | Infant neural sensitivity to eye gaze depends on early experience of gaze communication |
| title_fullStr | Infant neural sensitivity to eye gaze depends on early experience of gaze communication |
| title_full_unstemmed | Infant neural sensitivity to eye gaze depends on early experience of gaze communication |
| title_short | Infant neural sensitivity to eye gaze depends on early experience of gaze communication |
| title_sort | infant neural sensitivity to eye gaze depends on early experience of gaze communication |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187892931730138X |
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