The team of specialists found that whether infants at five months prefer looking at faces or non-social objects like cars is significantly influenced by their genes.
This discovery suggests that there's a biological basis for how infants shape their visual experiences and what they learn about.
Let's find out more about how it works.
Analyzing baby brains
The study, analyzing over 500 infant twins, used baby-friendly eye tracking to measure gaze preferences.
The results indicated that genetic differences largely explained individual infants' preference for faces, with family environment playing a minor role.
Interestingly, infants looking more at faces at five months were associated with having a larger vocabulary in their second year of life, suggesting a connection between early preferences and later development.
The study also explored whether visual preferences could predict autism-related behaviors and found no strong association, highlighting the complexity of genetic influences on infant behavior.
The findings offer insights into how genetics contribute to early visual exploration and its potential impacts on later development.
