Tuning the developing brain to emotional body expressions

Missana, M.; Atkinson, A.P.; Grossmann, T.

doi:10.1111/desc.12209

Tuning the developing brain to emotional body expressions

Missana, M.; Atkinson, A.P.; Grossmann, T.

Authors

M. Missana

Professor Anthony Atkinson a.p.atkinson@durham.ac.uk
Professor

T. Grossmann

Abstract

Reading others’ emotional body expressions is an essential social skill. Adults readily recognize emotions from body movements. However, it is unclear when in development infants become sensitive to bodily expressed emotions. We examined event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in 4- and 8-month-old infants in response to point-light displays (PLDs) of happy and fearful body expressions presented in two orientations (upright and inverted). The ERP results revealed that 8-month-olds but not 4-month olds respond sensitively to the orientation and the emotion of the dynamic expressions. Specifically, 8-month-olds showed (i) an early (200–400 ms) orientation-sensitive positivity over frontal and central electrodes, and (ii) a late (700–1100 ms) emotion-sensitive positivity over temporal and parietal electrodes in the right hemisphere. These findings suggest that orientation-sensitive and emotion-sensitive brain processes, distinct in timing and topography, develop between 4 and 8 months of age.

Citation

Missana, M., Atkinson, A., & Grossmann, T. (2015). Tuning the developing brain to emotional body expressions. Developmental Science, 18(2), 243-253. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12209

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	May 7, 2014
Online Publication Date	Jul 11, 2014
Publication Date	Mar 1, 2015
Deposit Date	Jul 13, 2014
Publicly Available Date	Jan 18, 2016
Journal	Developmental Science
Print ISSN	1363-755X
Electronic ISSN	1467-7687
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	18
Issue	2
Pages	243-253
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12209

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Missana, M., Atkinson, A. P. and Grossmann, T. (2015), Tuning the developing brain to emotional body expressions. Developmental Science, 18(2): 243-253, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12209. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.