Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36567649›Full record

ArticleDevelopmental psychobiology2023

Face processing in the infant brain after pandemic lockdown.

Tristan S Yates, Cameron T Ellis, Nicholas B Turk-Browne

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Developmental psychobiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. The cortical scene processing network emerges in infancy, prior to independent navigation experience.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Awake Infants: Insights From More Than 750 Scanning Sessions.Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies · 2026
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Infants' Visual Preference for Upright Faces During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan.Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Tristan S YatesDepartment of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-5748-7468
Cameron T EllisDepartment of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
Nicholas B Turk-BrowneDepartment of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The role of visual experience in the development of face processing has long been debated. We present a new angle on this question through a serendipitous study that cannot easily be repeated. Infants viewed short blocks of faces during fMRI in a repetition suppression task. The same identity was presented multiple times in half of the blocks (repeat condition) and different identities were presented once each in the other half (novel condition). In adults, the fusiform face area (FFA) tends to show greater neural activity for novel versus repeat blocks in such designs, suggesting that it can distinguish same versus different face identities. As part of an ongoing study, we collected data before the COVID-19 pandemic and after an initial local lockdown was lifted. The resulting sample of 12 infants (9-24 months) divided equally into pre- and post-lockdown groups with matching ages and data quantity/quality. The groups had strikingly different FFA responses: pre-lockdown infants showed repetition suppression (novel > repeat), whereas post-lockdown infants showed the opposite (repeat > novel), often referred to as repetition enhancement. These findings provide speculative evidence that altered visual experience during the lockdown, or other correlated environmental changes, may have affected face processing in the infant brain.

Indexed as

COVID-19Facial RecognitionAdultBrainBrain MappingCommunicable Disease ControlHumansInfantMagnetic Resonance ImagingPandemicsPattern Recognition, VisualPhotic Stimulationexperienceface identityface recognitionfMRIneuroimaging

Identifiers

PMID36567649
PMCPMC9877889

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.