Poster #2 - Changes in visual attention strategies and neural discrimination of familiar and unfamiliar race faces during infancy

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Attention, Learning, Memory

Integrative Statement

Introduction: A recent model of the development of the other-race face bias predicts interactions between attention and perceptual learning that result in increasingly refined neural processing of faces from 6 to 12 months of age (I-MAP, Markant & Scott, 2018). The present study sought to examine the extent to which visual attention and perceptual discrimination of faces from familiar and unfamiliar race groups impacts neural indices of face individuation and visual attention from 6 to 9 months of age and from 9 to 12 months of age.

Methods: Neural discrimination was measured using ssVEPs (steady state visual evoked potentials) and visual attention was measured by examining changes in patterns of visual fixations during the test phase of the visual paired comparison (VPC) task. Analyses included longitudinal data from two separate cohorts of infants: one group was tested at 6 months and again at 9 months (n = 13) and the other group was tested at 9 months and again at 12 months (n=16). At both visits, continuous EEG was recorded during a fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) oddball task with familiar and unfamiliar race faces. Within each trial, a single face from one race was presented at a frequency of 6Hz. Every 5th face was a different face from the same race and served as our measure of individuation. The ScanMatch MATLAB Toolbox (Cristino et al., 2010) was used to examine the temporal and spatial sequences of visual fixations and similarity scores were calculated by comparing each infants’ fixations within conditions to all other infants.

Hypotheses: Consistent with findings using unfamiliar species faces (Barry-Anwar et al., 2018) it was predicted that all infants would show evidence of neural discrimination of both familiar and unfamiliar race faces. However, based on Markant & Scott’s (2018) model, the topography of the discrimination response was expected to differ by age and face race. In addition, infants’ scanning strategies were predicted to increase in similarity for faces from the familiar race but decrease in similarity for faces from the unfamiliar race.

Results and Discussion: The FPVS results show neural discrimination at all ages for both familiar and unfamiliar race faces. Further, neural activity shifts from more diffuse discrimination recorded over both frontal and posterior regions to more focal activity over posterior brain areas. The neural shift happens earlier for familiar race faces (from 6 to 9 months) than unfamiliar race faces (from 9 to 12 months; see Figure 1). ScanMatch analyses show that for familiar race faces, scanning strategies did not change over time for either cohort. However, visual fixation similarity increased across infants for unfamiliar race faces in both cohorts (see Figure 2). These results suggest that with development, infants begin to use more consistent fixation strategies when scanning unfamiliar race faces reflecting the use of a general strategy applied to faces within unfamiliar groups. These results are consistent with I-MAP (Markant & Scott, 2018) and suggest increasingly refined neural processing of faces and changes in visual attention modulated by familiarity.

Authors

• Lisa S Scott, University of Florida
  Presenting Author

• Ryan Barry-Anwar, University of Florida
  Non-Presenting Author

• Andreas Keil, University of Florida
  Non-Presenting Author