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Charlotte Viktorsson, Ana Maria Portugal, Danyang Li, Maja Rudling, Monica Siqueiros Sanchez, Kristiina Tammimies, Mark J. Taylor, Angelica Ronald, et al.
(2023).
Preferential looking to eyes versus mouth in early infancy: heritability and link to concurrent and later development.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 64(2), 311-319.
Wiley.
- Publication date
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25 Nov 2022
- Identifier
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10.1111/jcpp.13724
- Authors
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Charlotte Viktorsson,
Ana Maria Portugal,
Danyang Li,
Maja Rudling,
Monica Siqueiros Sanchez,
Kristiina Tammimies,
Mark J. Taylor,
Angelica Ronald,
Terje Falck‐Ytter
- Source
- Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
- Details
- 64(2), 311-319
- Reference type
- article
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Metadata source
- crossref
Abstract
Background From birth, infants orient preferentially to faces, and when looking at the face, they attend primarily to eyes and mouth. These areas convey different types of information, and earlier research suggests that genetic factors influence the preference for one or the other in young children. Methods In a sample of 535 5‐month‐old infant twins, we assessed eye (relative to mouth) preference in early infancy, i.e., before neural systems for social communication and language are fully developed. We investigated the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the preference for looking at eyes, and the association with concurrent traits and follow‐up measures. Results Eye preference was independent from all other concurrent traits measured, and had a moderate‐to‐high contribution from genetic influences (A = 0.57; 95% CI: 0.45, 0.66). Preference for eyes at 5 months was associated with higher parent ratings of receptive vocabulary at 14 months. No statistically significant association with later autistic traits was found. Preference for eyes was strikingly stable across different stimulus types (e.g., dynamic vs. still), suggesting that infants' preference at this age does not reflect sensitivity to low‐level visual cues. Conclusions These results suggest that individual differences in infants' preferential looking to eyes versus mouth to a substantial degree reflect genetic variation. The findings provide new leads on both the perceptual basis and the developmental consequences of these attentional biases.
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