Development of preference for baby faces across species in humans (Homo sapiens)

Sanefuji, Wakako; Hidehiro, Ohgami; Hashiya, Kazuhide

doi:10.1007/s10164-006-0018-8

Cited by 65 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Preferences for the baby schema are evident in young children as well as adults (Sanefuji, Ohgami, & Hashiya, 2007). These preferences extend across species (Archer & Monton, 2011;Lehmann, Huis in't Veld, & Vingerhoets, 2013;Little, 2012;Lorenz, 1943) and have been observed for inanimate objects such as cars and toys (Hinde & Barde, 1985;Miesler, Leder, & Herrmann, 2011).…”

Section: Babies On the Brain: An Infant Face-specific Neural Respomentioning

confidence: 97%

Neural and behavioral responses to attractiveness in adult and infant faces

Hahn

Perrett

2014

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

137

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Facial attractiveness provides a very powerful motivation for sexual and parental behavior. We therefore review the importance of faces to the study of neurobiological control of human reproductive motivations. For heterosexual individuals there is a common brain circuit involving the nucleus accumbens, the medial prefrontal, dorsal anterior cingulate and the orbitofrontal cortices that is activated more by attractive than unattractive faces, particularly for faces of the opposite sex. Behavioral studies indicate parallel effects of attractiveness on incentive salience or willingness to work to see faces. Both work/effort and brain activation to the sight of opposite sex attractiveness is more pronounced in men than women, perhaps reflecting the greater importance assigned to physical attractiveness by men when evaluating a potential mate. Studies comparing heterosexual and homosexual observers indicate the orbitofrontal cortex and mediodorsal thalamus are more activated by faces of the desired sex than faces of the less preferred sex, independent of observer gender or sexual orientation. Infant faces activate brain regions that partially overlap with those responsive to adult faces. Infant faces provide a powerful stimulus, which also elicits sex differences in behavior and brain responses that appear dependent on sex hormones. There are many facial dimensions affecting perceptions of attractiveness that remain unexplored in neuroimaging, and we conclude by suggesting that future studies combining parametric manipulation of face images, brain imaging, hormone assays and genetic polymorphisms in receptor sensitivity are needed to understand the neural and hormonal mechanisms underlying reproductive drives.3

show abstract

Section: Babies On the Brain: An Infant Face-specific Neural Respomentioning

confidence: 97%

Neural and behavioral responses to attractiveness in adult and infant faces

Hahn

Perrett

2014

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

137

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It has long been understood that in several respects, pet ownership resembles the parentoffspring (or alloparent-infant) relationship (Serpell 1996a;Serpell and Paul 2011), with kittens and puppies carrying many of the same cute facial features of human babies, and eliciting similar responses from adults (Sanefuji, Ohgami and Hashiya 2007;Sherman, Haidt and Coan 2009;Archer 2011). There is also a commonly held belief that pets are often viewed as baby surrogates (Crawford, Worsham and Swinehart 2006;Kurdek 2008;Paul 2011), andCollis, Bradshaw andCook (1998) found some empirical support for this, showing that cat-owning mothers reported least affection for their pets when they were pregnant or caring for young babies or toddlers (see also Adamelli et al 2005).…”

Section: Children In the Homementioning

confidence: 99%

Sociality Motivation and Anthropomorphic Thinking about Pets

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sociality motivation, the need to feel socially connected with others, has been proposed as an important determinant of individual variation in anthropomorphic thinking. Specifically, it has been suggested that people who are socially isolated or disconnected will tend to infer more human-like mental states in animals and other nonhuman agents (computers, robots, metaphysical beings, etc.), than those who have higher levels of contact with other people. We investigated this hypothesis in a communitybased sample of cat and dog owners, measuring degree of anthropomorphism by asking them which emotions they believed their pet was capable of experiencing, how likely they were to rely on it for social support, and how attached they were to it. Structural measures of social disconnection, including the number of other adults living in the household and the number of social contacts outside the home, were not generally associated with the tendency to think anthropomorphically about pets. However, owners living in households with no children (under the age of 16 years) reported higher levels of attachment to their pet than did those with children (B = 1.678, p < 0.001), and felt that they derived relatively more social support from it than they did from humans (F (1,244) = 4.997, p < 0.05, partial 2 = 0.020). In addition, a trait-based indicator of social disconnection (self-reported anxiety about human social relationships) was associated with a heightened tendency for owners to report turning to their pet for support (F (1,244) = 19.617, p < 0.001, partial 2 = 0.074), and attributing more human-like emotions to it (F (1,244) = 8.354, p < 0.005, partial 2 = 0.033). These findings support a link between social disconnection and anthropomorphic thinking in a community setting; they also suggest that different forms of social disconnection (structural and trait-based) may generate different types of sociality motivation, and thereby influence different facets of anthropomorphic thinking.

show abstract

“…By the end of the first trimester, fetuses are felt to move in utero ("quickening") (90), a significant marker in the life of the child and in the lives and psyches of parents. Soon after birth, physiognomic features of the infant (a large head dominated by a disproportionately large forehead, widely spaced sizable eyes, a small snub nose, an exaggeratedly round face, and a small chin) (91-93) prompt adults to express nurturance and solicitude (94)(95)(96). Moreover, many adult responses to infants are culturally common, such as the special vocal register of childdirected speech (97).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurobiology of culturally common maternal responses to infant cry

Bornstein

Putnick

Rigo

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

147

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This report coordinates assessments of five types of behavioral responses in new mothers to their own infants' cries with neurobiological responses in new mothers to their own infants' cries and in experienced mothers and inexperienced nonmothers to infant cries and other emotional and control sounds. We found that 684 new primipara mothers in 11 countries (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, France, Kenya, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the United States) preferentially responded to their infants' vocalizing distress by picking up and holding and by talking to their infants, as opposed to displaying affection, distracting, or nurturing. Complementary functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analyses of brain responses to their own infants' cries in 43 new primipara US mothers revealed enhanced activity in concordant brain territories linked to the intention to move and to speak, to process auditory stimulation, and to caregive [supplementary motor area (SMA), inferior frontal regions, superior temporal regions, midbrain, and striatum]. Further, fMRI brain responses to infant cries in 50 Chinese and Italian mothers replicated, extended, and, through parcellation, refined the results. Brains of inexperienced nonmothers activated differently. Culturally common responses to own infant cry coupled with corresponding fMRI findings to own infant and to generic infant cries identified specific, common, and automatic caregiving reactions in mothers to infant vocal expressions of distress and point to their putative neurobiological bases. Candidate behaviors embedded in the nervous systems of human caregivers lie at the intersection of evolutionary biology and developmental cultural psychology.

show abstract

Development of preference for baby faces across species in humans (Homo sapiens)

Cited by 65 publications

References 12 publications

Neural and behavioral responses to attractiveness in adult and infant faces

Neural and behavioral responses to attractiveness in adult and infant faces

Sociality Motivation and Anthropomorphic Thinking about Pets

Neurobiology of culturally common maternal responses to infant cry

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About