BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Neural Circuits

Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fncir.2025.1553918

This article is part of the Research TopicInducing Lifelong Plasticity (iPlasticity) by Brain Rejuvenation: Elucidation and Manipulation of Critical Period MechanismsView all 15 articles

Facial Affect and Arousal as a Complement to Gaze Measures in Infant Speech Sound Perception Studies

Provisionally accepted
Sho TsujiSho Tsuji1,2*Fernanda AlonsoFernanda Alonso3Hiromichi HagiharaHiromichi Hagihara1,4Nanako KimuraNanako Kimura5Linda PolkaLinda Polka3Irena LovcevicIrena Lovcevic1*
  • 1International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN) Institutes for Advanced Study, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Japan
  • 2Département d’études cognitives, Laboratoire de sciences cognitives et de psycholinguistique, ENS, EHESS, CNRS, PSL University, Paris, France
  • 3School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, Centre for Research on Brain, Language & Music, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • 4Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University, Suita, Ōsaka, Japan
  • 5Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Japan

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This study explores infant facial expressions during visual habituation to investigate perceptual attunement to native and non-native speech sounds. Using automated facial affect analysis based on Facial Action Units, we analyzed valence, arousal, positive affect, and negative affect during the experiment. Valence and arousal decreased with habituation, while positive affect increased, with differences between native and non-native stimuli. Facial affect showed links to discrimination outcomes, with better native discrimination linked to reduced negative affect. These findings highlight the potential of facial expression analysis as a complementary tool to gaze-based measures in early language development research.

Keywords: speech perception1, infnacy2, perceptual attunement3, facial affect4, Automatic facial analysis

Received: 31 Dec 2024; Accepted: 12 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Tsuji, Alonso, Hagihara, Kimura, Polka and Lovcevic. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Sho Tsuji, International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN) Institutes for Advanced Study, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Japan
Irena Lovcevic, International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN) Institutes for Advanced Study, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Japan

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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