{"database":"biostudies-literature","file_versions":[],"scores":null,"additional":{"submitter":["Rekow D"],"funding":["Alexander Von Humboldt-Stiftung","Landesforschungsförderung of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg","Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder"],"pagination":["e70076"],"full_dataset_link":["https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12924696"],"repository":["biostudies-literature"],"omics_type":["Unknown"],"volume":["31(1)"],"pubmed_abstract":["Research on face-selectivity in infants under 4 months has shown mixed results, especially with rapid stimulus presentations. Here we tested whether increasing face saliency would promote face-selective responses even with brief presentation times in infants aged 4-to-6 months and younger. Using frequency-tagging EEG, we presented face and nonface stimuli at a rapid 6-Hz rate (i.e., 167 ms/stimulus), with faces appearing once per second as every 6th stimulus, therefore isolating face-selectivity at 1 Hz in the EEG spectrum. Two sets of images were presented in separate conditions: a \"classic\" set from previous studies and a \"new\" more salient set with increased luminance and size of the depicted items as well as a smoother background intending to facilitate figure-ground segregation. In Experiment 1, we validated the use of the new set to elicit high-level face-selectivity in adults (N = 19). Crucially, Experiment 2 demonstrated benefits from the new set for 2-to-6-month old infants (N = 46), with the youngest ones (2-to-4-month-olds) featuring face-selective responses only to this new set. Thus, adapting stimuli to the visual capabilities of infants uncovered earlier developmental emergence of face-selectivity to rapid visual stimulation than previously thought."],"journal":["Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies"],"pubmed_title":["Emergence of Neural Face Selectivity in Infants Younger Than 4 Months Old."],"pmcid":["PMC12924696"],"funding_grant_id":["Z1-V5-099","LFF-FV76"],"pubmed_authors":["Bayir DH","Rekow D","Arya T","Roder B"],"additional_accession":[]},"is_claimable":false,"name":"Emergence of Neural Face Selectivity in Infants Younger Than 4 Months Old.","description":"Research on face-selectivity in infants under 4 months has shown mixed results, especially with rapid stimulus presentations. Here we tested whether increasing face saliency would promote face-selective responses even with brief presentation times in infants aged 4-to-6 months and younger. Using frequency-tagging EEG, we presented face and nonface stimuli at a rapid 6-Hz rate (i.e., 167 ms/stimulus), with faces appearing once per second as every 6th stimulus, therefore isolating face-selectivity at 1 Hz in the EEG spectrum. Two sets of images were presented in separate conditions: a \"classic\" set from previous studies and a \"new\" more salient set with increased luminance and size of the depicted items as well as a smoother background intending to facilitate figure-ground segregation. In Experiment 1, we validated the use of the new set to elicit high-level face-selectivity in adults (N = 19). Crucially, Experiment 2 demonstrated benefits from the new set for 2-to-6-month old infants (N = 46), with the youngest ones (2-to-4-month-olds) featuring face-selective responses only to this new set. Thus, adapting stimuli to the visual capabilities of infants uncovered earlier developmental emergence of face-selectivity to rapid visual stimulation than previously thought.","dates":{"release":"2026-01-01T00:00:00Z","publication":"2026 Jan","modification":"2026-07-16T15:13:42.791Z","creation":"2026-07-10T03:09:28.416Z"},"accession":"S-EPMC12924696","cross_references":{"pubmed":["41722081"],"doi":["10.1111/infa.70076"]}}