AsianScientist (Dec. 21, 2018) – Scientists in Japan have found that babies only recognize the profile (side) view of a person after six months of age. Their findings are published in the journal NeuroImage.
After birth, babies develop a strong bond with their parents, and part of that bond stems from a newborn’s ability to recognize faces. A face is more easily recognized from the front, but it can be more challenging to identify an individual from the side. Whether and when babies recognize the side view of their parents was unknown.
In the present study, researchers led by Dr. Hiroko Ichikawa from the Tokyo University of Science, Japan, found that babies younger than six months of age do not recognize their mothers when presented with the side view of their mother’s faces.
The researchers longitudinally tested 14 babies at monthly intervals during the first three to eight months of life to identify developmental changes in babies regarding their facial recognition capabilities. They used non-invasive near-infrared spectroscopy to measure babies’ brain activity in response to frontal and side views of faces.
“The brain activity of babies tells us if they recognize a face,” said Ichikawa. “[Neural responses in a specific brain region] revealed that at around 5.5 months of age, babies gradually start to recognize the side views of faces.”
The findings suggest that when adults communicate with younger babies, they should face the babies directly, said Professor Ryusuke Kakigi of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan, who was not involved in the study.
The article can be found at: Ichikawa et al. (2018) A Longitudinal Study of Infant View-invariant Face Processing During the First 3–8 Months of Life.
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Source: Chuo University; Photo: Shutterstock.
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