Scott Lisa, Shannon Robert W, Nelson Charles A
University of Colorado.
University of Minnesota.
Infancy. 2006 Sep;10(2):171-186. doi: 10.1207/s15327078in1002_4. Epub 2010 Feb 3.
Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence suggests a gradual, experience-dependent specialization of cortical face processing systems that take place largely in the first year of life. To further investigate these findings, event-related potentials (ERPs) were collected from typically developing 9-month-old infants presented with pictures of familiar and unfamiliar monkey or human faces in two different orientations. Analyses revealed differential processing across changes in monkey and human faces. The N290 was greater for familiar compared to unfamiliar faces, regardless of species or orientation. In contrast, the P400 to unfamiliar faces was greater than to familiar faces, but only for the monkey condition. The P400 to human faces differentiated the orientation of both familiar and unfamiliar faces. These results suggest more specific processing of human compared to monkey faces in 9-month-olds.
行为学和电生理学证据表明，皮层面部处理系统存在逐渐的、依赖经验的特化，这一过程主要发生在生命的第一年。为了进一步研究这些发现，我们从9个月大发育正常的婴儿身上收集了事件相关电位（ERP），这些婴儿观看了以两种不同方向呈现的熟悉和不熟悉的猴子或人类面孔图片。分析揭示了猴子和人类面孔变化时的不同处理方式。无论物种或方向如何，熟悉面孔的N290比不熟悉面孔的更大。相比之下，对不熟悉面孔的P400比对熟悉面孔的更大，但仅在猴子面孔的情况下如此。对人类面孔的P400区分了熟悉和不熟悉面孔的方向。这些结果表明，9个月大的婴儿对人类面孔的处理比对猴子面孔的处理更具特异性。
