The development of the perception of facial emotional change examined using ERPs.

Objective: The development of the perception of changes in facial emotion was investigated using event-related potentials (ERPs) in children and adults.

Methods: Four different conditions were presented: (1) N-H: a neutral face that suddenly changed to a happy face. (2) H-N: reverse of N-H. (3) N-A: a neutral face that suddenly changed to an angry face. (4) A-N: reverse of N-A.

Results: In the bilateral posterior temporal areas, a negative component was evoked by all conditions in younger children (7-10 years old), older children (11-14 years old), and adults (23-33 years old) within 150-300 ms. Peak latency was significantly shorter and amplitude was significantly smaller in adults than younger and older children. Moreover, maximum amplitude was significantly larger for N-H and N-A than H-N and A-N in younger children and for N-H than the other three conditions in adults.

Conclusion: The areas of the brain involved in perceiving changes in facial emotion have not matured by 14 years of age.

Significance: Our study is the first to clarify a difference between children and adults in the perception of facial emotional change.