Balaban M T
Department of Psychology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
Child Dev. 1995 Feb;66(1):28-36. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1995.tb00853.x.
Convergent methodologies from studies of fear-potentiated startle in animals and studies of affective modulation of reflex blinks in humans were adapted in order to investigate infants' sensitivity to affective information conveyed by facial expressions of emotion. While 5-month-old infants viewed photographic slides of faces posed in happy, neutral, or angry expressions, a brief acoustic noise burst was presented to elicit the blink component of human startle. Blink size was augmented during the viewing of angry expressions and reduced during happy expressions. Infants did not show marked changes in behavioral reactions to the positive, neutral, and negative slides, although motor activity was slightly reduced during negative slides. Results suggest that, by 5 months, infants react to affective information conveyed by unfamiliar human faces. Potential mechanisms mediating the influence of affective stimuli on reflex excitability are considered.
为了研究婴儿对情绪面部表情所传达的情感信息的敏感性，采用了来自动物恐惧增强惊吓研究和人类反射性眨眼情感调节研究的趋同方法。当5个月大的婴儿观看呈现快乐、中性或愤怒表情的面部照片幻灯片时，会发出短暂的突发声响来引发人类惊吓反应中的眨眼成分。观看愤怒表情时眨眼幅度增大，观看快乐表情时眨眼幅度减小。尽管在观看负面幻灯片时婴儿的运动活动略有减少，但他们对正面、中性和负面幻灯片的行为反应并未表现出明显变化。结果表明，到5个月大时，婴儿会对不熟悉的人脸所传达的情感信息做出反应。文中还考虑了介导情感刺激对反射兴奋性影响的潜在机制。
