Infant neural sensitivity to eye gaze depends on early experience of gaze communication

Angélina Vernetti; Nataşa Ganea; Leslie Tucker; Tony Charman; Mark H Johnson; Atsushi Senju

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2018.05.007

Infant neural sensitivity to eye gaze depends on early experience of gaze communication

Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2018 Nov:34:1-6. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.05.007. Epub 2018 May 26.

Authors

Angélina Vernetti¹, Nataşa Ganea¹, Leslie Tucker¹, Tony Charman², Mark H Johnson³, Atsushi Senju⁴

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK.
² Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK.
³ Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK; Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK.
⁴ Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK. Electronic address: a.senju@bbk.ac.uk.

Abstract

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: Event-related potential; Eye gaze; Infant study; Non-verbal communication; Social experience.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Communication
Evoked Potentials
Eye Movements / genetics*
Female
Fixation, Ocular / genetics*
Humans
Infant
Male

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding