Work

Visual discrimination of male and female faces by infant rhesus macaques

Year: 2009

Type: article

Abstract: Recent studies have revealed that human infants process female faces differently from male faces. To test whether a similar preference for female faces exists in other primates, we presented nursery-reared infant rhesus macaques with photographs of macaque faces and human faces. At <1 month old, infant macaques preferentially oriented towards female macaque faces when faces were presented upright. No preference for female human faces was found. At 9 months old, infants failed to show a visual preference for female macaque faces or female human faces, although they showed significantly more lipsmacking responses at female human faces. Compared to human infants, macaques appear to have stronger predispositions early in life but this preference may nonetheless be amendable to experience. Understanding how innate predispositions and the social rearing environment shape infants' understanding of faces remain important issues to be explored in order to understand facial processing abilities in humans and other primates.

Source: Developmental Psychobiology

DOI: 10.1002/dev.20412

Authors: Annika Paukner, Mary E. Huntsberry, Stephen J. Suomi

Institutions: National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Research Services

Language: English

Topic: Face Recognition and Perception

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institutes of Health

Award: G1667031398