title: Face perception and processing in early infancy: inborn predispositions and developmental changes.
abstract: From birth it is critical for our survival to identify social agents and conspecifics. Among others stimuli, faces provide the required information. The present paper will review the mechanisms subserving face detection and face recognition, respectively, over development. In addition, the emergence of the functional and neural specialization for face processing as an experience-dependent process will be documented. Overall, the present work highlights the importance of both inborn predispositions and the exposure to certain experiences, shortly after birth, to drive the system to become functionally specialized to process faces in the first months of life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova , Padova, Italy ; Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Padova , Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Simion
authors.affiliation: CIMeC, Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento , Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisa Di
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Giorgio
keywords: early infancy; face perception; face processing; perceptual narrowing; visual experience