Cortical Parcellation and the Development of Face Processing

Abstract

Recent evidence indicated that the cerebral cortex is extremely sensitive to experiential factors early in life. Some of the extrinsic factors that constrain this plasticity are briefly reviewed. We then focus on the developmental consequence of one particular intrinsic constraint, cortical parcellation, 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 prosopagnosic patients.