Dynamic facial expressions of emotions are discriminated at birth.

Abstract

The ability to discriminate between different facial expressions is fundamental since the first stages of postnatal life. The aim of this study is to investigate whether 2-days-old newborns are capable to discriminate facial expressions of emotions as they naturally take place in everyday interactions, that is in motion. When two dynamic displays depicting a happy and a disgusted facial expression were simultaneously presented (i.e., visual preference paradigm), newborns did not manifest any visual preference (Experiment 1). Nonetheless, after being habituated to a happy or disgusted dynamic emotional expression (i.e., habituation paradigm), newborns successfully discriminated between the two (Experiment 2). These results indicate that at birth newborns are sensitive to dynamic faces expressing emotions.