The infant brain combines emotional information from faces and action kinematics

Abstract

Converging evidence suggests that infants can extract and integrate emotional content from multiple sources (e.g., faces, body postures, and voices). Yet this evidence is mostly based on static representations of emotions, such as photographs, whereas in everyday life, infants are primarily exposed to dynamic input, particularly others’ actions. This study investigates whether infants can link emotional information conveyed in action kinematics and facial expressions. To address this issue, we used an ERP priming paradigm in which 12-month-olds were presented with video primes of actions performed with happy or angry kinematics, followed by target images of faces displaying happy or angry facial expressions. Results revealed a P400 congruency effect over the right hemisphere. Specifically, happy faces elicited a larger P400 than angry faces when they followed an incongruent emotional action. Moreover, the P400 was larger for incongruent than for congruent happy facial expressions. Results suggest that bodily kinematics provide infants with crucial contextual and emotional cues that bias their perception of facial expressions from early in life.