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The origins of face processing| old_uid | 5308 |
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| title | The origins of face processing |
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| start_date | 2008/09/29 |
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| schedule | 11h-12h30 |
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| online | no |
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| summary | The large majority of the studies on newborns’ face processing has been focused on newborns’ preference for face over non-face images, using to this end highly schematized black-and-white stimuli in which the resemblance to real faces was based on the presence of black spots to represents the internal facial features. Conversely, newborns’ capacity to recognize the image of a real unfamiliar individual face has received only limited attention from researchers. Our purpose was to investigate the visual information that newborn infants rely on to perform face recognition, shedding light on the nature of newborn face representation. Evidence will be presented showing that the limited resolution capacities of the visual system at birth do not prevent few-day-old infants from detecting and discriminating the information embedded in the inner portion of a face. In particular, within the range of visual spatial frequencies visible to a newborn baby, the extreme low spatial frequency range –from 0 to 0.5 cpd- appears useful for face recognition process at birth. Also, newborns are able to derive a representation of an unfamiliar face that is resilient to partial occlusion, and to a certain degree of rotation in depth. Finally, dynamic motion information plays a crucial role in promoting newborns’ face recognition, probably aiding the derivation of a tridimensional structure of the face. By three month of age, infants are sensitive to holistic face information, as can be shown using the face composite paradigm. |
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| responsibles | Waszak |
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