Maternal gaze to the infant face: Effects of infant age and facial configuration during mother-infant engagement in the first nine weeks

Pascalis, Leonardo De; Kkeli, Natalie; Chakrabarti, Bhismadev; Dalton, Louise; Vaillancourt, Kyla; Rayson, Holly; Bicknell, Sarah; Goodacre, Tim; Cooper, Peter; Stein, Alan; Murray, Lynne

doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2016.12.003

Cited by 22 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…For example, infant faces with abnormalities (e.g., cleft lip, strabismus, and hemangioma) are rated less attractive (Lewis et al, 2017;Huffmeijer et al, 2018), and less time is spent by the observers on viewing these faces compared with healthy faces (Parsons et al, 2011b). Another study has shown that mothers of infants with cleft lips allocated significantly less visual attention to their children's faces, especially to the area around the mouth (De Pascalis et al, 2017). Correspondingly, an electrophysiological study revealed lower neural activities (N170 and P2) induced by infant faces with cleft lip compared with healthy infant faces (Huffmeijer et al, 2018).…”

Section: Cognitive Processing Of Facial Attractiveness In Infant Facesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanisms for the Cognitive Processing of Attractiveness in Adult and Infant Faces: From the Evolutionary Perspective

Kou

Xie

2020

Front. Psychol.

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Research on the cognitive processing of facial attractiveness has mainly focused on adult faces. Recent studies have revealed that the cognitive processing of facial attractiveness in infant faces is not the same as that in adult faces. Therefore, it is necessary to summarize the evidence on the processing of facial attractiveness in each kind of face and compare their underlying mechanisms. In this paper, we first reviewed studies on the cognitive processing of facial attractiveness in adult faces, including attentional and mnemonic processing, and then discussed the underlying mechanisms. Afterward, studies on facial attractiveness in infant faces were reviewed, and the underlying mechanisms were also discussed. Direct comparisons between the two kinds of cognitive processing were subsequently made. The results showed that the mechanisms for the processing of attractiveness in adult faces and infant faces are mainly motivated by the perspectives of mate selection and raising offspring, respectively, in evolutionary psychology. Finally, directions for future research are proposed.

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Section: Cognitive Processing Of Facial Attractiveness In Infant Facesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanisms for the Cognitive Processing of Attractiveness in Adult and Infant Faces: From the Evolutionary Perspective

Kou

Xie

2020

Front. Psychol.

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“…Parents and infants possess both a perceptual and behavioral predisposition to engage in interactions that work to promote attachment (Murray et al, 2016 ). Some characteristics of infants with clinical conditions, such as cleft lip (Murray et al, 2008 ), can present challenges for parent-infant interactions (De Pascalis et al, 2017 ) and compromise attachment. Maternal interactions with preterm infants are also less effective than interactions with infants born at term (Crnic et al, 1983 ; Harrison and Magill-Evans, 1996 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Socio-Communicative Development of Preterm Infants Is Resistant to the Negative Effects of Parity on Maternal Responsiveness

et al. 2018

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Humans are born completely dependent on adult care for survival. To get the necessary support, newborns rely on socio-communicative abilities which have both innate and learned components. Maternal responsiveness (MR), as a critical aspect of mother-infant interaction, is a robust predictor of the acquisition of socio-communicative abilities. However, maternal responsiveness (MR) is influenced by parity, since mothers rely on a limited capacity of cognitive control for efficient attachment with their offspring. This fact is of particular concern for preterms, whose developing brain already faces many challenges due to their premature emergence from the womb's controlled environment and may still have to compete with siblings for mother's attention. Thus, in the present work, we aimed to understand how parity interferes with MR and whether it affects the development of socio-communicative abilities of preterm infants. We used the Social Interaction Rating Scale (SIRS) and the mother-child observation protocol in 18 dyads with gestational age <36 weeks. Dyads were separated into three groups: primiparous with twin pregnancy (TPM), primiparous (PM), and multiparous (MP). Dyadic behavior was evaluated at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Our results show that offspring size affects MR, but not the socio-communicative development of preterm infants during the first year, suggesting a level of resilience of brain systems supporting the attachment to caregivers.

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“…Prospective studies through the postpartum weeks have demonstrated the “functional architecture” of these interactions, whereby infant social expressions are accompanied by specific, highly organised, parental behaviours [4, 5]. Thus, parents gaze almost exclusively to their infant's face [6] and respond selectively to infant social vs. non-social cues by mirroring them and positively marking their occurrence with salient signals (e.g., eyebrow flashes) [2, 4, 7–10]. Such parental responses appear both intuitive and functionally important [5, 11], likely recruiting brain networks differentiating infant facial signals from other social cues [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These issues are difficult to address with normal community samples, given their limited variability; however, they may be usefully elucidated in clinical conditions in which social interactions are perturbed [14]. For example, the “cute” infant facial configuration [15] may be required for intuitive parenting responses, and if infant facial stimuli are distorted by a relatively minor facial structural abnormality, such as cleft lip, alterations occur in adult gaze patterns [6, 16] and in neural responses associated with feelings of reward [12]. Whether this abnormal infant facial configuration affects key parental interactive responses like mirroring, and what mechanisms are involved, is unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Maternal Mirroring on the Development of Infant Social Expressiveness: The Case of Infant Cleft Lip

et al. 2018

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Parent-infant social interactions start early in development, with infants showing active communicative expressions by just two months. A key question is how this social capacity develops. Maternal mirroring of infant expressions is considered an important, intuitive, parenting response, but evidence is sparse in the first two months concerning the conditions under which mirroring occurs and its developmental sequelae, including in clinical samples where the infant's social expressiveness may be affected. We investigated these questions by comparing the development of mother-infant interactions between a sample where the infant had cleft lip and a normal, unaffected, comparison sample. We videotaped dyads in their homes five times from one to ten weeks and used a microanalytic coding scheme for maternal and infant behaviours, including infant social expressions, and maternal mirroring and marking responses. We also recorded maternal gaze to the infant, using eye-tracking glasses. Although infants with cleft lip did show communicative behaviours, the rate of their development was slower than in comparison infants. This group difference was mediated by a lower rate of mirroring of infant expressions by mothers of infants with cleft lip; this effect was, in turn, partly accounted for by reduced gaze to the infant's mouth, although the clarity of infant social expressions (indexed by cleft severity) and maternal self-blame regarding the cleft were also influential. Results indicate the robustness of parent-infant interactions but also their sensitivity to specific variations in interactants' appearance and behaviour. Parental mirroring appears critical in infant social development, likely supported by the mirror neuron system and underlying clinical and, possibly, cultural differences in infant behaviour. These findings suggest new avenues for clinical intervention.

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Maternal gaze to the infant face: Effects of infant age and facial configuration during mother-infant engagement in the first nine weeks

Cited by 22 publications

References 54 publications

Mechanisms for the Cognitive Processing of Attractiveness in Adult and Infant Faces: From the Evolutionary Perspective

Mechanisms for the Cognitive Processing of Attractiveness in Adult and Infant Faces: From the Evolutionary Perspective

The Socio-Communicative Development of Preterm Infants Is Resistant to the Negative Effects of Parity on Maternal Responsiveness

The Effects of Maternal Mirroring on the Development of Infant Social Expressiveness: The Case of Infant Cleft Lip

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