Is there an innate gaze module? Evidence from human neonates

Evidence from various fields that suggests humans have a specialized neural system dedicated to perceiving another's eyes and detecting the direction in which they are gazing. The evidence is, however, inconclusive about whether this system is already operating in neonates. 105 neonates were presented with two photographs separately. One was a female adult face with the eyes open and the other was the same face with the eyes closed. Results indicated that the neonates spent significantly more time looking at the photograph with the eyes open than at the photograph with the eyes closed. This result may reflect that neonates have a special neural mechanism that detects eye-like stimuli in the environment and orients attention towards them. This new visual preference in infants warrants further research. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.