Impact of Surgical Masks on Newborns' Spontaneous Face Processing Skills

Abstract

At birth, newborns prefer upright faces over other stimuli, indicating that they already pay specific attention to facial internal features, with expectations about their featural configuration. The study investigated whether surgical mask wearing in maternity wards due to COVID-19 disrupts newborns' face processing. Using a visual preference paradigm, newborns saw paired images of the same face. In Condition 1, both faces were upright, one masked, one unmasked. No preference was found. In Condition 2, newborns saw an upright masked face versus the same masked face but inverted (i.e., upside down), showing a preference for the upright version. Findings suggest that masked and unmasked static faces equally attract newborns' attention and that surgical masks do not disrupt their face configuration processing. It has implications for recommendations to the general public, especially individuals in contact with newborns.