Study: Infants Respond to Social Cues From Sclera

The eye plays a significant role in the expressiveness of a face, and how much sclera is shown can indicate the emotions or behavioral attitudes of a person. Adult humans are well-attuned to social cues involving the eye and use them to respond appropriately during social interactions. This sensitivity to eye cues is hard-wired into the brain of adults, but it is unclear whether the ability to unconsciously distinguish between different social cues indicated by the eyes exists early in development and can therefore be considered a key feature of the human social makeup. A new study, recently published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that the ability to respond to eye cues apparently develops during infancy – at seven or so months. Researchers used electroencephalography to measure the brain activity of 7-month-old infants while showing images of eyes wide open, narrowly opened, and with direct or averted gazes. They found that the infants’ brains responded differently, depending on the expression suggested by the eyes they viewed, which were shown absent of other facial features. They viewed the eye images for only 50 milliseconds. The infants’ brain responses displayed a different pattern to sclera depicting fearful expressions to non-fearful sclera. They also showed brain responses that differed when viewing direct gaze eyes compared to averted gaze. To learn more about the study, click here.