title: Looking to the eyes influences the processing of emotion on face-sensitive event-related potentials in 7-month-old infants.
abstract: Previous studies in infants have shown that face-sensitive components of the ongoing electroencephalogram (the event-related potential, or ERP) are larger in amplitude to negative emotions (e.g., fear, anger) versus positive emotions (e.g., happy). However, it is still unclear whether the negative emotions linked with the face or the negative emotions alone contribute to these amplitude differences. We simultaneously recorded infant looking behaviors (via eye-tracking) and face-sensitive ERPs while 7-month-old infants viewed human faces or animals displaying happy, fear, or angry expressions. We observed that the amplitude of the N290 was greater (i.e., more negative) to angry animals compared to happy or fearful animals; no such differences were obtained for human faces. Eye-tracking data highlighted the importance of the eye region in processing emotional human faces. Infants that spent more time looking to the eye region of human faces showing fearful or angry expressions had greater N290 or P400 amplitudes, respectively.
authors: Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.|Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors: Ross E
authors: RE
authors: Vanderwert
authors: Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors: Alissa
authors: A
authors: Westerlund
authors: Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors: Lina
authors: L
authors: Montoya
authors: Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors: Sarah A
authors: SA
authors: McCormick
authors: ClPsi Department of Basic Psychology, School of Psychology, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal.
authors: Helga O
authors: HO
authors: Miguel
authors: Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.|Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.|Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors: Charles A
authors: CA
authors: Nelson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005123:Eye / Q000254:growth & development*; D005145:Face / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: emotions; event-related potentials; eye tracking; face processing; infant development