Summary: A new study shows that the brain’s social perception network — the system that processes faces, gaze and speech — is active at or shortly after birth. Advanced neonatal brain imaging reveals strong functional connectivity in regions responsible for visual and social processing. These early connections predict how infants attend to faces and may help identify early markers of autism spectrum disorder.
Infants with stronger connectivity in this network in the newborn period paid more attention to faces at four months and had fewer social difficulties by 18 months. The findings provide new insight into the neural foundation of social behavior and suggest pathways for earlier detection of social vulnerabilities linked to autism.
Key Facts:
- Early activation: The social perception network is active within weeks after birth.
- Predictive connectivity: Stronger newborn functional connectivity predicts greater attention to faces in early infancy.
- Autism insight: Early connectivity patterns may serve as neural markers related to later social outcomes associated with autism spectrum disorder.
Source: Yale
Reduced attention to faces is a recognized early behavioral marker associated with autism spectrum disorder. While previous research has identified brain regions that process social stimuli such as faces, gaze and speech, little was known about when the neural circuitry underlying this capability becomes functional. Yale researchers have now demonstrated that the social perception pathway shows robust functional connectivity at or soon after birth, offering a neural basis for the social preferences seen in early infancy.
The study was published in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science and focused on the social perception pathway, a right-lateralized network that includes the superior temporal sulcus — a region specialized for processing faces, speech and gaze — and ventral visual areas involved in face recognition.
Researchers began by analyzing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from the Developing Human Connectome Project, which collects brain imaging, clinical and behavioral data, and genetic information from infants up to 10 months of age. They measured intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) across brain areas that form the social perception network and found strong connectivity within weeks of birth.
“Newborns already show a preference for faces and gaze,” said Katarzyna Chawarska, PhD, Emily Fraser Beede Professor of Child Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and co-senior author of the paper. “Our results suggest that cortical processes that support social attention are operating very early and likely help shape later social engagement.”
Brain connectivity is linked to facial attention
To examine how newborn connectivity relates to later social behavior, the team analyzed a second sample of neonates, including infants with a family history of autism — a group at elevated risk for later social differences. In this sample the social perception pathway was also interconnected at birth. Importantly, infants who showed stronger connectivity in the right-lateralized social pathway shortly after birth paid more attention to faces at four months.
Eye-tracking assessments at about 4.1 months demonstrated that greater attention to faces was associated with fewer social concerns at 18 months. These longitudinal associations link early functional brain organization with observable social attention and later social outcomes, reinforcing the idea that early brain wiring contributes to the development of social skills.
“Identifying neural markers in the newborn period that predict early social attention gives us a window into how typical and atypical social development may unfold,” said Dustin Scheinost, PhD, associate director of biomedical imaging technologies at the Yale Biomedical Imaging Institute and senior author of the study.
The interdisciplinary research team — including investigators from Yale’s Child Study Center, Departments of Pediatrics and Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, and the Department of Statistics and Data Science — is continuing to follow a larger cohort of children and to explore additional measures of attention and social development. Their work aims to clarify the brain processes that drive social attention in typical development and those that may underlie social vulnerabilities associated with autism.
Key Questions Answered:
A: The study found that key components of this network are already active within weeks after birth.
A: It governs processing of faces, speech and gaze — core elements of social behavior and social attention.
A: Newborns with stronger early connectivity in the right social pathway displayed better attention to faces at four months and fewer social concerns at 18 months, suggesting early brain organization may relate to later social outcomes tied to autism risk.
About this research
Author: Mallory Locklear
Source: Yale
Contact: Mallory Locklear – Yale
Image credit: Neuroscience News
Original Research (open access): “Functional connectivity in the social perception pathway at birth is linked with attention to faces at 4 months” by Katarzyna Chawarska et al., Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science.
Abstract
Functional connectivity in the social perception pathway at birth is linked with attention to faces at 4 months
Background
The right-lateralized social perception pathway, which includes the superior temporal sulcus, supports processing of dynamic, multimodal facial cues. The right-lateralized ventral visual pathway, which includes the fusiform gyrus, contributes to processing static facial features. Little is known about how these pathways develop early in life or how neonatal connectivity relates to later social outcomes.
Methods
Intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) was measured in 310 full-term, typically developing neonates from the Developing Human Connectome Project at approximately 41 weeks postmenstrual age, and in 73 full-term Yale neonates (with and without a family history of autism) at approximately 44 weeks postmenstrual age. Attention to faces was measured with eye-tracking at about 4.1 months in a subset of 37 Yale participants.
Results
All four examined pathways showed significant intrinsic functional connectivity (p < 0.001) with no sex differences. Connectivity in the social pathway increased with age. In the Yale sample, iFC in the right social pathway was positively associated with attention to faces at four months [r(37) = 0.456, p = 0.006], and greater attention to faces predicted fewer social concerns at 18 months [r(33) = –0.358, p = 0.010].
Conclusions
The right-lateralized social perception pathway is robustly connected at birth and represents a promising target for identifying early neural markers of social vulnerabilities associated with autism. Understanding these early brain networks can inform research into typical social development and early identification strategies for at-risk infants.