Conscious and unconscious emotion processing in the infant brain
Detecting others’ emotions plays a crucial role in human social interactions. Research in adults suggests that emotions are not only evaluated on a conscious level, but that emotional signals can impact a person’s neural and behavioral responses even if not consciously perceived. I will present a series of studies investigating this phenomenon from a developmental perspective, investigating the conscious and unconscious processing of emotional information in the first year of life. Focusing predominantly on event-related potentials (ERPs), I will discuss the impact of subliminally and supraliminally presented information on different stages of face processing.
In the second part of my talk, I will turn towards a different aspect of emotion processing in infancy and discuss the potential impact of secondary factors, in particular odor. I will present recent work investigating the influence of maternal odor on the processing of emotional facial expressions in infancy and end by discussing these findings and their implications on the development of early emotion perception.
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Monday, June 3, h.14.30
Graduation Hall of the Department of Psychology, U6 Building (3rd floor)
Free entry.
Info:
Dr. Elena Nava