ArticleScientific reports2020
Snakes elicit specific neural responses in the human infant brain.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Rhythmic visual stimulation as a window into early brain development: A systematic review.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- Untangling brain and behavioural measures of visual statistical learning: A longitudinal study in infancy.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Subjective and psychophysiological response to pictures of ancestral and modern threats: Not all evolutionary threats are alike.PloS one · 2026Article
- Frequency-tagging EEG reveals spontaneous categorical discrimination of visual self-identity.iScience · 2025Article
- Pushing the boundaries of MEG based on optically pumped magnetometers towards early human life.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Japanese monkeys rapidly noticed snake-scale cladded salamanders, similar to detecting snakes.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Visual looming is a primitive for human emotion.iScience · 2024Article
- The Development of Global-Level Categorization: Frequency Tagging EEG Responses.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Visual looming is a primitive for human emotion.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Neuronal mechanism of innate rapid processing of threating animacy cue in primates: insights from the neuronal responses to snake images.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
- Imprint of ancestral and modern threats in human mind - experience of fear, disgust, and anger.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Off Starburst Amacrine Cells in the Retina Trigger Looming-Evoked Fear Responses in Mice.eNeuro · 2023Article
- What determines the neural response to snakes in the infant brain? A systematic comparison of color and grayscale stimuli.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- The bigger the threat, the longer the gaze? A cross-cultural study of Somalis and Czechs.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Are vipers prototypic fear-evoking snakes? A cross-cultural comparison of Somalis and Czechs.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- The power of rhythms: how steady-state evoked responses reveal early neurocognitive development.NeuroImage · 2022Article
- Frequency tagging with infants: The visual oddball paradigm.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Fast Detection of Snakes and Emotional Faces in the Macaque Amygdala.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Titi monkey neophobia and visual abilities allow for fast responses to novel stimuli.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Mechanisms of False Alarm in Response to Fear Stimulus: An Event-Related Potential Study.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2021Article
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7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Detecting predators is essential for survival. Given that snakes are the first of primates' major predators, natural selection may have fostered efficient snake detection mechanisms to allow for optimal defensive behavior. Here, we provide electrophysiological evidence for a brain-anchored evolved predisposition to rapidly detect snakes in humans, which does not depend on previous exposure or knowledge about snakes. To do so, we recorded scalp electrical brain activity in 7- to 10-month-old infants watching sequences of flickering animal pictures. All animals were presented in their natural background. We showed that glancing at snakes generates specific neural responses in the infant brain, that are higher in amplitude than those generated by frogs or caterpillars, especially in the occipital region of the brain. The temporal dynamics of these neural responses support that infants devote increased attention to snakes than to non-snake stimuli. These results therefore demonstrate that a single fixation at snakes is sufficient to generate a prompt and large selective response in the infant brain. They argue for the existence in humans of an inborn, brain-anchored mechanism to swiftly detect snakes based on their characteristic visual features.
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