Direction-selective adaptation from implied motion in infancy.

We investigated whether adaptation from implied motion (IM) is transferred to real motion using optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) in infants. Specifically, we examined whether viewing a series of images depicting motion shifted infants' OKN responses to the opposite direction of random dot kinematograms (RDKs). Each RDK was presented 10 times in a pre-test, followed by 10 trials of IM adaptation and test.

The other-race effect of pupil contagion in infancy.

Pupil contagion refers to the observer's pupil-diameter changes in response to changes in the pupil diameter of others. Recent studies on the other-race effect on pupil contagion have mainly focused on using eye region images as stimuli, revealing the effect in adults but not in infants. To address this research gap, the current study used whole-face images as stimuli to assess the pupil-diameter response of 5-6-month-old and 7-8-month-old infants to changes in the pupil-diameter of both upright and inverted unfamiliar-race faces.

Attentional blink in infants under 7 months.

Attentional blink manifests in infants at 7 months of age, indicating that the working memory capacity of 7-month-olds is comparable to that of adults. However, attentional blink in infants under 7 months is not well understood. In this study, we conducted two experiments to investigate attentional blink in 5- and 6-month-old infants.

Infants' visual perception without feature-binding.

We reveal a unique visual perception before feature-integration of colour and motion in infants. Visual perception is established by the integration of multiple features, such as colour and motion direction. The mechanism of feature integration benefits from the ongoing interplay between feedforward and feedback loops, yet our comprehension of this causal connection remains incomplete.

Metacontrast masking is ineffective in the first 6 months of life.

Metacontrast masking is one of the most widely studied types of visual masking, in which a visual stimulus is rendered invisible by a subsequent mask that does not spatially overlap with the target. Metacontrast has been used for many decades as a tool to study visual processing and conscious perception in adults. However, there are so far no infant studies on metacontrast and it remains unknown even whether it occurs in infants.

Emotional response in babies' pupil contagion.

In this study, it was investigated whether an emotional response would occur in pupil contagion by using skin conductance response (SCR) in 5- and 6-month-old infants. In the experiment, emotional responses to pupil diameter change (dilating/constricting) between the face and eyes regions were compared by using pupil diameter response and SCR. The results showed that pupil diameter responses to pupil diameter changes did not differ between face and eyes regions.

Cortical signatures of visual body representation develop in human infancy.

Human infants cannot report their experiences, limiting what we can learn about their bodily awareness. However, visual cortical responses to the body, linked to visual awareness and selective attention in adults, can be easily measured in infants and provide a promising marker of bodily awareness in early life. We presented 4- and 8-month-old infants with a flickering (7.

The role of scenic context on upright face preference in infancy.

Scenic information plays an important role in face processing, whereas it has received limited attention in the field of developmental research. In the current study, we investigated whether infants, like adults, utilize scenic information for face processing by the preferential-looking method. In Experiment 1, we examined 4-5 and 6-7-month-olds' visual preferences for upright faces compared to inverted faces in two surrounding scene conditions: intact (in which a face occurs in an intact scene) and scrambled (in which a face occurs in a jumbled scene).

Recognition of humans from biological motion in infants.

Infant studies have suggested that the detection of biological motion (BM) might be an innate capacity, based on newborns' spontaneous preference for BM. However, it is unclear if, like adults, infants recognize humans from BM and are able to build the representation of bodies and faces. To address this issue, we tested whether exposure to BM influences subsequent face recognition in 3- to 8-month-old infants.

Infants' anticipatory eye movements: feature-based attention guides infants' visual attention.

When looking for an object, we identify it by selectively focusing our attention to a specific feature, known as feature-based attention. This basic attentional system has been reported in young children; however, little is known of whether infants could use feature-based attention. We have introduced a newly developed anticipation-looking task, where infants learned to direct their attention endogenously to a specific feature based on the learned feature (color or orientation), in 60 preverbal infants aged 7-8 months.

Infants' Hemodynamic Modulation in the Temporal Region.

This study examined whether 8-month-old infants' hemodynamic responses in the temporal region were modulated by repeated presentation of "Peekaboo" by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Previous studies have shown that infants' temporal region responds to faces (e.g.

Development of upper visual field bias for faces in infants.

The spatial location of the face and body seen in daily life influences human perception and recognition. This contextual effect of spatial locations suggests that daily experience affects how humans visually process the face and body. However, it remains unclear whether this effect is caused by experience, or innate neural pathways.

Infants' brain activity to cartoon face using functional near-infrared spectroscopy.

In this study, to investigate whether infants showed face-specific brain activity to a cartoon human face, we conducted a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) experiment and a behavioral experiment. In the fNIRS experiment, we measured the hemodynamic responses of 5- and 6-month-old infants to cartoon female and cartoon character faces using fNIRS. The results showed that the concentration of oxy-Hb increased for cartoon female faces but not for cartoon character faces.

Face-Specific Pupil Contagion in Infants.

Pupil contagion is the phenomenon in which an observer's pupil-diameter changes in response to another person's pupil. Even chimpanzees and infants in early development stages show pupil contagion. This study investigated whether dynamic changes in pupil diameter would induce changes in infants' pupil diameter.

Cortical processing of dynamic bodies in the superior occipito-temporal regions of the infants' brain: Difference from dynamic faces and inversion effect.

Previous functional neuroimaging studies imply a crucial role of the superior temporal regions (e.g., superior temporal sulcus: STS) for processing of dynamic faces and bodies.

The other-race effect on the McGurk effect in infancy.

This study investigated the difference in the McGurk effect between own-race-face and other-race-face stimuli among Japanese infants from 5 to 9 months of age. The McGurk effect results from infants using information from a speaker's face in audiovisual speech integration. We hypothesized that the McGurk effect varies with the speaker's race because of the other-race effect, which indicates an advantage for own-race faces in our face processing system.

Perception of invisible masked objects in early infancy.

Recurrent loops in the visual cortex play a critical role in visual perception, which is likely not mediated by purely feed-forward pathways. However, the development of recurrent loops is poorly understood. The role of recurrent processing has been studied using visual backward masking, a perceptual phenomenon in which a visual stimulus is rendered invisible by a following mask, possibly because of the disruption of recurrent processing.

Attentional blink in preverbal infants.

Primary cognitive processes, such as spatial attention, are essential to our higher cognitive abilities and develop dramatically in the first year of life. The spatial aspect of infants' working memory is equivalent to that of adults. However, it is unclear whether this is true for the temporal domain.

The Development of Binocular Suppression in Infants.

Little is known about the time of development of binocular suppression. In the present study, we evaluated the emergence of binocular suppression in infants by using continuous flash suppression (CFS, Tsuchiya and Koch, 2005). In our experiment, one eye of infants was presented with a static face image at one side of the screen, while another eye was presented with dynamic Mondrian patterns in full screen.

The Other-Race-Effect on Audiovisual Speech Integration in Infants: A NIRS Study.

Previous studies have revealed perceptual narrowing for the own-race-face in face discrimination, but this phenomenon is poorly understood in face and voice integration. We focused on infants' brain responses to the McGurk effect to examine whether the other-race effect occurs in the activation patterns. In Experiment 1, we conducted fNIRS measurements to find the presence of a mapping of the McGurk effect in Japanese 8- to 9-month-old infants and to examine the difference between the activation patterns in response to own-race-face and other-race-face stimuli.

Acute administration of methylphenidate differentially affects cortical processing of emotional facial expressions in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder children as studied by functional near-infrared spectroscopy.

It has been reported that children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have impairment in the recognition of angry but not of happy facial expressions, and they show atypical cortical activation patterns in response to facial expressions. However, little is known about neural mechanisms underlying the impaired recognition of facial expressions in school-aged children with ADHD and the effects of acute medication on their processing of facial expressions. We aimed to investigate the possibility that acute administration of methylphenidate (MPH) affects processing of facial expressions in ADHD children.

Infants' recognition of their mothers' faces in facial drawings.

This study examined the development of ability to recognize familiar face in drawings in infants aged 6-8 months. In Experiment 1, we investigated infants' recognition of their mothers' faces by testing their visual preference for their mother's face over a stranger's face under three conditions: photographs, cartoons produced by online software that simplifies and enhances the contours of facial features of line drawings, and veridical line drawings. We found that 7- and 8-month-old infants showed a significant preference for their mother's face in photographs and cartoons, but not in veridical line drawings.

Hemodynamic response to familiar faces in children with ADHD.

Background: School-age children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have difficulties in interpersonal relationships, in addition to impaired facial expression perception and recognition. For successful social interactions, the ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar faces is critical. However, there are no published reports on the recognition of familiar and unfamiliar faces by children with ADHD.