乳児の表情認識における脳血行動態反応

Brain hemodynamics reaction in facial expression recognition of infants

Saito Yuri

広島大学大学院教育学研究科紀要. 第三部, 教育人間科学関連領域

Bulletin of the Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University. Part. Ⅲ, Education and Human Science

The cognition of facial expression in infants had been examined by means of behavioral measures due to the preferential looking method or the habituation / dishabituation method. However, little is known about the developmental brain function based on those behavioral measures. The recent non-invasive brain imaging technique can be applied to the study for the brain functions in infants. The present study examined the infant's visual cognition for the adult's facial expressions by means of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), which is one of new techniques for measuring the brain blood flows. Eight infants participated in this experiment every three months, so that the brain imaging has been longitudinally measured at three-, six- and nine-month-old of each infant. In the experimental session, I showed each infant the visual stimuli, of which a female stranger is doing the peek-a-boo play, through the screen of the personal computer, and measured a brain blood flow change simultaneously during his/her seeing the stimulus. For the peeka- boo play, the infant was exposed two different facial expression conditions, which are involved a smile and a non-smile faces respectively. Results showed that the quantity of oxy-Hb in a smile condition significantly increased more than in a non-smile condition, and that there found a significant trend for the interaction between age in month and stimulus condition showed. Those indicated that infants could discriminate the facial expressions with their development in terms of their brain activation, and that this discriminative development would be due to the sensitivity development for the high frequency band involved in the facial features.

表情認知

発達

近赤外分光法

facial expression recognition

development

Near-infrared Spectroscopy

Psychology [ 140 ]

jpn

広島大学大学院教育学研究科

[ISSN] 1346-5562

[NCID] AA11625039