title: Do surprised faces affect infants' attention toward novel objects?
abstract: Previous research has shown that expressions of fear have an effect on infants' object processing. This event-related potential study addresses the question whether surprised faces affect infants' brain responses to objects in a similar way, as both expressions share a crucial perceptual feature, wide-opened eyes. Three-month and 9-month-old infants were presented with surprised and neutral faces gazing toward objects. Following each face looking toward an object, the object was presented again without the face. Three-month-olds directed an increased attention to objects that were previously gaze cued by a surprised compared with neutral face as indicated by an enhanced negative central component. This replicates earlier findings using fearful compared with neutral faces as stimuli. Nine-month-olds did not show different responses to objects in both conditions. This suggests that surprised faces have the same effect as fearful faces on 3-month-olds', but not on 9-month-olds' object processing. The findings are discussed in terms of social cognitive and visuoperceptual development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. stefanie.hoehl@psychologie.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hoehl
authors.forename: Sabina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pauen
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012919:Social Behavior