Effects of motion and audio-visual redundancy on upright and inverted face and feature preferences in 4-13-month old pre- and full-term NICU graduates

• Published in: Infant behavior & development Vol. 60; p. 101439
• Main Authors: Kittler, P.M., Kim, S.-Y., Flory, M.J., Phan, H.T.T., Karmel, B.Z., Gardner, J.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-08-2020
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation - methods; Audio-visual redundancy; Eye Movements - physiology; Eye tracking; Face inversion; Facial Recognition - physiology; Female; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Infant, Premature - physiology; Infant, Premature - psychology; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal - trends; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Motion Perception - physiology; Orientation, Spatial - physiology; Photic Stimulation - methods; Pre/full-term NICU graduates; Talking face; Audio-visual redundancy; Talking face; Eye tracking; Pre/full-term NICU graduates; Face inversion
• ISSN: 0163-6383; 1879-0453; 1934-8800
• DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101439

•Eyetracking captured an upright compared to inverted face preference in 4−13-mo old pre/full-term NICU graduates.•Infants with abnormal cranial ultrasounds had less interest in upright still faces. Motion closed the gap.•Female, but not males, increased looking at the mouth across age (especially between 7–10 mos).•“Talking” did not boost attention to the face/mouth as it does in non-NICU babies.•The salience of audio-visual redundancy may be reduced in NICU graduates.
NICU infants are reported to have diminished social orientation and increased risk of socio-communicative disorders. In this eye tracking study, we used a preference for upright compared to inverted faces as a gauge of social interest in high medical risk full- and pre-term NICU infants. We examined the effects of facial motion and audio-visual redundancy on face and eye/mouth preferences across the first year. Upright and inverted baby faces were simultaneously presented in a paired-preference paradigm with motion and synchronized vocalization varied. NICU risk factors including birth weight, sex, and degree of CNS injury were examined. Overall, infants preferred the more socially salient upright faces, making this the first report, to our knowledge, of an upright compared to inverted face preference among high medical risk NICU infants. Infants with abnormalities on cranial ultrasound displayed lower social interest, i.e. less of a preferential interest in upright faces, when viewing static faces. However, motion selectively increased their upright face looking time to a level equal that of infants in other CNS injury groups. We also observed an age-related sex effect suggesting higher risk in NICU males. Females increased their attention to the mouth in upright faces across the first year, especially between 7–10 months, but males did not. Although vocalization increased diffuse attention toward the screen, contrary to our predictions, there was no evidence that the audio-visual redundancy embodied in a vocalizing face focused additional attention on upright faces or mouths. This unexpected result may suggest a vulnerability in response to talking faces among NICU infants that could potentially affect later verbal and socio-communicative development.