Abstract:
In childhood, higher levels of temperamental fear-an early-emerging proclivity to distress in the face of novelty-are associated with lower social responsivity and greater social anxiety. While the early emergence of temperamental fear in infancy is poorly understood, it is theorized to be driven by individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation to novel stimuli. The current study used eye tracking to capture infants\' (N = 124) reactions to a video of a smiling stranger-a common social encounter-including infant gaze aversions from the stranger\'s face (indexing arousal regulation) and pupil dilation (indexing physiological reactivity), longitudinally at 2, 4, 6, and 8 months of age. Multilevel mixed-effects models indicated that more fearful infants took more time to look away from a smiling stranger\'s face than less fearful infants, suggesting that high-fear infants may have slower arousal regulation. At 2 and 4 months, more fearful infants also exhibited greater and faster pupil dilation before gaze aversions, consistent with greater physiological reactivity. Together, these findings suggest that individual differences in infants\' gaze aversions and pupil dilation can index the development of fearful temperament in early infancy, facilitating the identification of, and interventions for, risk factors to social disruptions.
摘要:
在童年,更高水平的性情恐惧-早期出现的面对新颖性的痛苦倾向-与较低的社会反应性和更大的社会焦虑有关。虽然人们对婴儿期早期出现的性情恐惧知之甚少,从理论上讲,它是由对新刺激的反应性和自我调节的个体差异驱动的。当前的研究使用眼动追踪来捕获婴儿(N=124)对微笑陌生人的视频的反应-这是一种常见的社交遭遇-包括婴儿对陌生人面部的凝视厌恶(索引唤醒调节)和瞳孔扩张(索引生理反应性),纵向在2、4、6和8个月大。多层次混合效应模型表明,与不那么害怕的婴儿相比,更害怕的婴儿花更多的时间从微笑的陌生人的脸上移开。这表明高度恐惧的婴儿可能有较慢的唤醒调节。在2个月和4个月时,更害怕的婴儿在凝视厌恶之前也表现出更大和更快的瞳孔扩张,与更大的生理反应性一致。一起,这些发现表明,婴儿凝视厌恶和瞳孔扩张的个体差异可以指示婴儿早期恐惧性情的发展,便于识别,和干预措施,社会中断的风险因素。