Converging neural and behavioral evidence for a rapid, generalized response to threat-related facial expressions in 3-year-old children.

ABSTRACT: Electrophysiological studies on adults suggest that humans are efficient at detecting threat from facial information and tend to grant these signals a priority in access to attention, awareness, and action. The developmental origins of this bias are poorly understood, partly because few studies have examined the emergence of a generalized neural and behavioral response to distinct categories of threat in early childhood. We used event-related potential (ERP) and eye-tracking measures to examine children's early visual responses and overt attentional biases towards multiple exemplars of angry and fearful vs. other (e.g., happy and neutral) faces. A large group of children was assessed longitudinally in infancy (5, 7, or 12 months) and at 3 years of age. The final ERP dataset included 148 in

SUBMITTER: Xie W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8109251 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature