Neural Correlates of Face Familiarity in Institutionally Reared Children With Distinctive, Atypical Social Behavior

Abstract

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Early Adverse Caregiving Experiences and Preschoolers' Current Attachment Affect Brain Responses during Facial Familiarity Processing: An ERP Study

“…The first face-sensitive ERP component in the temporal sequence of neural face processing, the P1, occurs at occipital electrode sites approximately 100 ms following stimulus onset. It has repeatedly been reported in studies on face processing in infants (de Haan and Nelson, 1999 ), children (Taylor et al, 2001 , 2004 ; Carver et al, 2003 ; Todd et al, 2008 ; Moulson et al, 2009 ; Mesquita et al, 2015 ), as well as adults (e.g., Halit et al, 2000 ; Itier, 2004 ), and is particularly likely to be sensitive to faces by 4 years of age (Taylor et al, 2001 , 2004 ; Itier, 2004 ). The P1 might possibly reflect an early stage of facial encoding as it is sensitive to low-level individual differences between faces and non-face stimuli (Rossion and Caharel, 2011 ).…”

“…Still, foster children have been found to lack an age-appropriate reticence around strangers, also referred to as disinhibited social engagement (Zeanah et al, 2004 ; Oosterman and Schuengel, 2008 ; Pears et al, 2010 ; Van Den Dries et al, 2012 ; Jonkman et al, 2014 ; Lawler et al, 2014 ), which tends to persist despite improvements in attachment security (Chisholm, 1998 ; Smyke et al, 2002 ; O'Connor et al, 2003 ; Rutter et al, 2007 ; Zimmermann, 2015 ). Recent evidence suggests that atypical brain activity (i.e., cortical hypoactivation) may be associated with this behavioral pattern (Tarullo et al, 2011 ; Mesquita et al, 2015 ). This emphasizes the role of neurophysiological studies when studying effects of early adverse experiences on behavioral development.…”

“…The N170's sensitivity to facial familiarity still seems to be a topic of debate. However, evidence suggests that personal importance of faces alters the N170 response by the activation of robust representations in the brain that have evolved due to frequent exposure (Caharel et al, 2002 , 2005 , 2006 ; Mesquita et al, 2015 , but see Eimer, 2000 ). As an example, the N170 amplitudes was found to discriminate between mother's and random famous faces in adults (Caharel et al, 2005 ) and between caregiver and stranger faces in children (Todd et al, 2008 ; Moulson et al, 2009 ; Dai et al, 2014 ).…”

“…In a recent study, Mesquita et al ( 2015 ) investigated children's facial familiarity processing in a sample of 3- to 6-year-old children currently living in Portuguese institutions. They addressed the non-significant interaction between group and facial type reported by Moulson et al ( 2009 ) and extended the study by taking into account within group variations regarding disordered social behavior.…”

The role of learning in social development: Illustrations from neglected children

“…Almost all human infants form some kind of selective relationship with their caregivers, even under abusive conditions. Although institutionalized children do learn to recognize displays of emotion (Mesquita, Belsky, Crego, Fachada, Oliveira et al ., ), they often have difficulties recognizing specific adults as secure caregivers. Many aspects of primate socioemotional development appear dependent on response‐contingent interactions during infancy (Lamb, ).…”