Early and late event-related potentials are modulated by infant and adult faces of high and low attractiveness

Abstract

1The processing of infant faces may be somewhat distinct from that of adult 2 faces. Indeed, recent neuroimaging studies have provided evidence of an 3 early, "baby-specific" neural response whereby infant faces are perceived 4 more rapidly than adult faces. Using event-related potentials, the present 5 study aimed to determine whether the preferential response to infant faces is 6 present at both early and late stages of face processing, and to investigate 7 the effects of aesthetic appearance on the processing of adult and infant 8 faces by directly manipulating the perceived attractiveness or cuteness within 9 a given face identity. Here, we find evidence for enhanced processing of 10 infant faces, relative to adult faces, at both early (N170, P2) and late (LPC) 11 stages of face processing. We also find that the aesthetic appearance of both 12 infant and adult faces modulates early neural responses, with enhanced 13 responses to less attractive/cute faces as compared to more attractive/cute 14 faces. Overall, our results provide additional evidence for a preferential 15 response to infant faces at early stages of processing, and provide new 16 evidence that this preferential response occurs at later stages of face 17 processing as well, independent of the aesthetic quality of the face or 18 observer sex.

The special status of sad infant faces: age and valence differences in adults’ cortical face processing

“…The modulation of both early and late ERP components may indicate that infant faces garner heightened initial and sustained attentional resources that serve to facilitate an adaptive caregiving response (see Maupin et al , 2015). However, whereas Hahn et al (2016) found that early and late ERP components were modulated by infant faces regardless of participant gender, we found that this preference was gender-specific for select ERPs. Specifically, P1 and LPP amplitudes were larger in response to infant than adult faces for females only, suggesting a unique advantage for women in the early processing of infant faces and sustained attention thereof.…”

“…As expected and in line with previous findings (e.g. Proverbio et al , 2011; Hahn et al , 2016), the P1, N170, P2 and LPP each evidenced a bias to infant over adult faces. Unlike in previous studies, these results were demonstrated while considering the effect of emotional facial expression (happy vs sad), which suggests that—even in the presence of other salient facial cues—the adult brain rapidly processes and prioritizes infant face characteristics.…”

“…Thompson-Booth et al , 2014a,b) and electrophysiological studies demonstrating the sensitivity of our selected ERPs to face age and face valence, respectively (e.g. Proverbio et al , 2011; Hahn et al , 2016), we expected sad infants to elicit the strongest P1, N170, P2 and LPP responses. Although women, particularly mothers, have a special biological role in the upbringing of children that may imply a processing advantage in the current study, findings on gender differences in the attentional and neural prioritization of infant faces, as well as the processing of emotional faces, have yielded mixed results (e.g.…”

“…The P2 and LPP have also been implicated in the preferential processing of infant vs adult faces. Hahn et al (2016) found that both early (i.e. N170, P2) and late (i.e.…”

Aww: The Emotion of Perceiving Cuteness

“…Cute-emotion is principally a response to neotenic or baby-animal characteristics, such as big round eyes, small size, and softness. These characteristics are involved in human mate selection (Jones and Hill, 1993; Jones et al, 1995; Perrett et al, 1998; Thayer and Dobson, 2013) and human parental care (Sherman et al, 2009; Nittono et al, 2012; Sprengelmeyer et al, 2013; Aragón et al, 2015; Golle et al, 2015; Hahn et al, 2016; though see also Sherman and Haidt, 2011). …”