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 whet her this system is already operating in neonates. 105 neonates were present ed with two photographs separately. One was a female adult face with the ey es open and the other was the same face with the eyes closed. Results indic ated that the neonates spent significantly more time looking at the photogr aph with the eyes open than at the photograph with the eyes closed. This re sult may reflect that neonates have a special neural mechanism that detects eye-like stimuli in the environment and orients attention towards them. Th is new visual preference in infants warrants further research. (C) 2000 Els evier Science Inc. All rights reserved.