Visual preferences for direct‐gaze faces in infant macaques (<i>Macaca mulatta</i>) with limited face exposure

Simpson, Elizabeth A.; Paukner, Annika; Pedersen, Eric J.; Ferrari, Pier Francesco; Parr, Lisa A.

doi:10.1002/dev.21797

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 77 publications

(99 reference statements)

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“…These findings are aligned with previous research in human infants that reported early social preferences and growing social attention with age (Bahrick, Krogh‐Jespersen, Argumosa & Lopez, 2014; Frank et al., 2009, 2014; Pierce et al., 2011; Reid et al., 2017; Valenza et al., 1996). Our results are also consistent with prior longitudinal studies in macaque infants that found early sensitivity to eye‐contact, and age‐related increases in looking to faces and the eyes across the first 3 months after birth (Muschinski et al., 2016; Simpson et al., 2017; Simpson, Paukner, Pedersen, Ferrari, & Parr, 2019). While the aforementioned studies did not have a dynamic nonsocial control condition, such studies reported that both human and monkey infants displayed increasing looking times to conspecific faces with age.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Human and monkey infant attention to dynamic social and nonsocial stimuli

Maylott

Paukner

Ahn

et al. 2020

Developmental Psychobiology

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The present study explored behavioral norms for infant social attention in typically developing human and nonhuman primate infants. We examined the normative development of attention to dynamic social and nonsocial stimuli longitudinally in macaques (Macaca mulatta) at 1, 3, and 5 months of age (N = 75) and humans at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 13 months of age (N = 69) using eye tracking. All infants viewed concurrently played silent videos—one social video and one nonsocial video. Both macaque and human infants were faster to look to the social than the nonsocial stimulus, and both species grew faster to orient to the social stimulus with age. Further, macaque infants’ social attention increased linearly from 1 to 5 months. In contrast, human infants displayed a nonlinear pattern of social interest, with initially greater attention to the social stimulus, followed by a period of greater interest in the nonsocial stimulus, and then a rise in social interest from 6 to 13 months. Overall, human infants looked longer than macaque infants, suggesting humans have more sustained attention in the first year of life. These findings highlight potential species similarities and differences, and reflect a first step in establishing baseline patterns of early social attention development.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Human and monkey infant attention to dynamic social and nonsocial stimuli

Maylott

Paukner

Ahn

et al. 2020

Developmental Psychobiology

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“…Studies in nonhuman primates offer converging evidence of the malleability of infants' sensitivity to gaze direction. Infant monkeys reared in richer social environments attend more to direct gaze faces compared to averted gaze faces (Muschinski et al, ; Simpson, Paukner, Pedersen, Ferrari, & Parr, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Infant monkeys reared in richer social environments attend more to direct gaze faces compared to averted gaze faces (Muschinski et al, 2016;Simpson, Paukner, Pedersen, Ferrari, & Parr, 2018).…”

Section: Age Differences In Own-species Bias and The Role Of Experimentioning

confidence: 99%

Face detection in 2‐ to 6‐month‐old infants is influenced by gaze direction and species

Simpson

Maylott

Mitsven

et al. 2019

Developmental Science

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Humans detect faces efficiently from a young age. Face detection is critical for infants to identify and learn from relevant social stimuli in their environments. Faces with eye contact are an especially salient stimulus, and attention to the eyes in infancy is linked to the emergence of later sociality. Despite the importance of both of these early social skills—attending to faces and attending to the eyes—surprisingly little is known about how they interact. We used eye tracking to explore whether eye contact influences infants' face detection. Longitudinally, we examined 2‐, 4‐, and 6‐month‐olds' (N = 65) visual scanning of complex image arrays with human and animal faces varying in eye contact and head orientation. Across all ages, infants displayed superior detection of faces with eye contact; however, this effect varied as a function of species and head orientation. Infants were more attentive to human than animal faces and were more sensitive to eye and head orientation for human faces compared to animal faces. Unexpectedly, human faces with both averted heads and eyes received the most attention. This pattern may reflect the early emergence of gaze following—the ability to look where another individual looks—which begins to develop around this age. Infants may be especially interested in averted gaze faces, providing early scaffolding for joint attention. This study represents the first investigation to document infants' attention patterns to faces systematically varying in their attentional states. Together, these findings suggest that infants develop early, specialized functional conspecific face detection.

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“…Nursery-reared macaques (i.e. raised in a nursery since birth) have limited early social experience and are at increased risk for maladaptive social outcomes, including increased stress reactivity ( Dettmer et al, 2012 ) and socio-emotional difficulties from the earliest months of life (e.g., Paukner et al, 2020 ; Simpson et al, 2019 , 2016 ; Vanderwert et al, 2015 ). Such deficits can be predictive of longer-term negative outcomes, such as an increased risk for anxiety ( Conti et al, 2012 ; Dettmer and Suomi, 2014 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxytocin promotes prosocial behavior and related neural responses in infant macaques at-risk for compromised social development

Festante

Rayson

Paukner

et al. 2021

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

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Although positive effects of oxytocin (OT) on social functioning are well-demonstrated, little is known about the mechanisms through which OT may drive early social development, or its therapeutic efficacy in infancy. To address these critical issues, we investigated the effects of exogenous OT on neural (EEG) and behavioral responses during observation of live facial gestures in infant macaques with limited social exposure (i.e. nursery-reared). Three key findings were revealed. First, OT increased alpha suppression over posterior scalp regions during observation of facial gestures but not non-biological movement, suggesting that OT targets self-other matching and attentional cortical networks involved in social perception from very early infancy. Second, OT increased infant production of matching facial gestures and attention towards the most socially-relevant facial stimuli, both behaviors typically silenced by early social deprivation. Third, infants with higher cortisol levels appeared to benefit the most from OT, displaying greater improvements in prosocial behaviors after OT administration. Altogether, these findings suggest that OT promotes prosocial behaviors and associated neural responses likely impacted by early social adversity, and demonstrate the potential of OT administration to ameliorate social difficulties in the context of neurodevelopmental and early-emerging psychiatric disorders, at a developmental stage when brain plasticity is greatest.

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Visual preferences for direct‐gaze faces in infant macaques (Macaca mulatta) with limited face exposure

Cited by 16 publications

References 77 publications

Human and monkey infant attention to dynamic social and nonsocial stimuli

Human and monkey infant attention to dynamic social and nonsocial stimuli

Face detection in 2‐ to 6‐month‐old infants is influenced by gaze direction and species

Oxytocin promotes prosocial behavior and related neural responses in infant macaques at-risk for compromised social development

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