Abstract
Recent evidence indicates that the cerebral cortex is extremely sensitive to experiential factors early in life. Some of the extrinsic and intrinsic factors that constrain this plasticity are briefly reviewed. We then focus on the developmental consequence of one particular intrinsic constraint, cortical panellation, on infants’ ability to detect the direction of eye gaze in face stimuli. Preliminary data from a study of four-month-old infants using a preferential looking paradigm are presented. Infants were presented with two pictures of the same face, one with a direct eye gaze and one with an averted eye gaze. Results are discussed in terms of findings from single cell recordings in the macaque and from studies with adult Prosopagnosie patients.
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Johnson, M.H., Vecera, S.P. (1993). Cortical Parcellation and the Development of Face Processing. In: de Boysson-Bardies, B., de Schonen, S., Jusczyk, P., McNeilage, P., Morton, J. (eds) Developmental Neurocognition: Speech and Face Processing in the First Year of Life. NATO ASI Series, vol 69. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8234-6_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8234-6_12
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