Neural activation to babyfaced men matches activation to babies

• Published in: Social neuroscience Vol. 4; no. 1; pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: Zebrowitz, Leslie A., Luevano, Victor X., Bronstad, Philip M., Aharon, Itzhak
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Colchester Taylor & Francis Group 01.02.2009; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: Adult; Amygdala; Amygdala - physiology; Anatomical correlates of behavior; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain Mapping; Data processing; Face; Facial Expression; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Generalization, Response - physiology; Humans; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Infant; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Nervous system; Neural networks; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Social attribution, perception and cognition; Social psychology; Young Adult; Human; Amygdala; Central nervous system; Male; Experimental study; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Social cognition; Encephalon; Vision; Perception; Fusiform gyrus; Stimulus similarity; Face; Age; Functional imaging
• ISSN: 1747-0919; 1747-0927
• DOI: 10.1080/17470910701676236

Behavioral data supports the commonsense view that babies elicit different responses than adults do. Behavioral research also has supported the babyface overgeneralization hypothesis that the adaptive value of responding appropriately to babies produces a tendency for these responses to be overgeneralized to adults whose facial structure resembles babies. Here we show a neural substrate for responses to babies and babyface overgeneralization in the amygdala and the fusiform face area (FFA). Both regions showed greater percentage BOLD signal change compared with fixation when viewing faces of babies or babyfaced men than maturefaced men. Viewing the first two categories also yielded greater effective connectivity between the two regions. Facial qualities previously shown to elicit strong neural activation could not account for the effects. Babyfaced men were distinguished only by their resemblance to babies. The preparedness to respond to infantile facial qualities generalizes to babyfaced men in perceivers' neural responses just as it does in their behavioral reactions.