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. 2018 Mar 15;13(3):e0193868.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0193868. eCollection 2018.

Dynamic facial expressions of emotions are discriminated at birth

Margaret Addabbo  1   2 , Elena Longhi  2   3 , Ioana Cristina Marchis  1 , Paolo Tagliabue  4 , Chiara Turati  1   2
Affiliations

Dynamic facial expressions of emotions are discriminated at birth

Margaret Addabbo et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The ability to discriminate between different facial expressions is fundamental since the first stages of postnatal life. The aim of this study is to investigate whether 2-days-old newborns are capable to discriminate facial expressions of emotions as they naturally take place in everyday interactions, that is in motion. When two dynamic displays depicting a happy and a disgusted facial expression were simultaneously presented (i.e., visual preference paradigm), newborns did not manifest any visual preference (Experiment 1). Nonetheless, after being habituated to a happy or disgusted dynamic emotional expression (i.e., habituation paradigm), newborns successfully discriminated between the two (Experiment 2). These results indicate that at birth newborns are sensitive to dynamic faces expressing emotions.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Stimuli and results.
a) Frames composing the videos depicting the expression of disgust (left) and happiness (right) of one of the two face identities shown. Frames are presented in succession in the direction indicated by the arrow. The actress in the photograph has given written informed consent to publication of her photograph. b) Newborns’ total looking times (left) and orienting responses (right) towards the expression of happiness and disgust in Experiment 1 (Preference task). c) Newborns’ total looking times (left) and orienting responses (right) towards the novel and the familiar expression in the test phase of Experiment 2 (Habituation task). Error bars refer to the standard errors of the mean. * = p<.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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