Scientists at King's College London, the University of Manchester, and the University of Liverpool have found that an infant's preference for a person's face, rather than an object, is associated with lower levels of callous and unemotional behaviours in toddlerhood.
The study, published in Biological Psychiatry, assessed if 213 five-week-old infants spent longer tracking a person's face compared to an inanimate object – in this case a red ball. The researchers showed that greater tracking of the face relative to the ball was linked to lower callous unemotional behaviours measured using questionnaires when children were two and a half years old. The study also showed that if a mother responds more sensitively to their baby during playtime, then the child is less likely to display callous unemotional behaviour as a toddler.
Callous and unemotional behaviours include a lack of guilt and empathy, reduced concern for other's distress and difficulties with understanding emotions. In older children and adults, callous unemotional traits have been associated with reduced attention to important social features such as other people's faces and eyes. This study is the first to examine whether such a relationship is present from the first few weeks of life.
[For more of this story, written by Claire Hastings, go to http://medicalxpress.com/news/...ous-unemotional.html]
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