Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Italy.
Neuropsychologia. 2019 Mar 18;126:3-9. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.09.011. Epub 2017 Sep 13.
Race is an important perceptual cue for face perception. In adults, other-race faces are elaborated differently and remembered less well than own-race faces. Moreover, they show a different pattern of activation at the neural level. Developmental studies demonstrated that, during the first year of life, infants start to show the same behavioral pattern as adults in race perception. However, little is known about where and how in the brain other-race perception is elaborated in this population. The present study is the first to investigate the development of different neural responses to faces of different race in infants using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Specifically, a group of 5-month-old and a group of 9-month-old Caucasian infants were assessed during passing-viewing of Caucasian and African faces. Results showed a greater activation for African than for Caucasian faces for both oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin. Moreover, results suggested a tendency for a progressive specialization between 5 and 9 months of age. This is the first fNIRS study investigating the neural correlates of race perception in Caucasian infants during the first year of life.
种族是面孔感知的一个重要知觉线索。在成年人中，异族面孔比本族面孔得到更多的精细加工，记忆效果却较差。此外，异族面孔在神经水平上表现出不同的激活模式。发展研究表明，在生命的第一年，婴儿开始表现出与成人相同的种族知觉行为模式。然而，对于异族知觉在这一人群中是如何在大脑中得到精细加工的，我们知之甚少。本研究首次使用功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）研究婴儿对不同种族面孔的不同神经反应的发展。具体来说，我们评估了一组 5 个月大和一组 9 个月大的高加索婴儿在观看高加索和非洲面孔时的情况。结果表明，对于两种含氧血红蛋白和去氧血红蛋白，婴儿对非洲面孔的激活程度都大于对高加索面孔的激活程度。此外，结果表明，5 至 9 个月之间存在逐渐专业化的趋势。这是第一项研究婴儿在生命的第一年对高加索婴儿种族知觉的神经相关性的 fNIRS 研究。
