title: Influence of eye gaze on spoken word processing: an ERP study with infants.
abstract: Eye gaze is an important communicative signal, both as mutual eye contact and as referential gaze to objects. To examine whether attention to speech versus nonspeech stimuli in 4- to 5-month-olds (n=15) varies as a function of eye gaze, event-related brain potentials were used. Faces with mutual or averted gaze were presented in combination with forward- or backward-spoken words. Infants rapidly processed gaze and spoken words in combination. A late Slow Wave suggests an interaction of the 2 factors, separating backward-spoken word+direct gaze from all other conditions. An additional experiment (n=15) extended the results to referential gaze. The current findings suggest that interactions between visual and auditory cues are present early in infancy.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, and Cognitive Development Center, Central European University, Hattyú utca 14, Budapest, Hungary. eugenioparise@tiscali.it
authors.forename: Eugenio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Parise
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Handl
authors.forename: Letizia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Palumbo
authors.forename: Angela D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Friederici
mesh_terms: D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D002666:Psychology, Child; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*