Infants react to fearful faces at 6 monthsTAMPERE, Finland, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Infant sensitivity to negative emotional expressions develops at around 6 months of age, Finnish researchers said. Mikko Peltola of the University of Tampere in Finland said infants age 5 months react very differently to a fearful face than those at 7 months. "At the age of 5 months babies will watch a fearful face for longer than a happy face, and their attentiveness level as measured by EEG is higher after seeing a fearful than a happy face," Peltola said in a statement. "By contrast, infants age 5 months watch both faces, when they are shown side by side, for just as long, and there is no difference in the intensity of attention in favor of the fearful face." It seems that at age 6 months, important developmental changes take place in the way infants process significant emotional expressions, the study said. A fearful face attracts intense attention by the age of 7 months. In addition, it takes longer for infants to shift their attention away from fearful than from happy and neutral faces, Peltola said. "Our interpretation of this is to suggest that the brain mechanisms that specialize in emotional response and especially in processing threatening stimuli regulate and intensify the processing of facial expressions by age 7 months," Peltola said.
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