Developing a brain specialized for face perception: A converging methods approach

Adults are normally very quick and accurate at recognizing facial identity. This skill has been explained by two opposing views as being clue to the existence of an innate cortical face module or to the natural consequence of adults' extensive experience with faces. Neither of these views puts particular importance on studying development of face-processing skills, as in one view the module simply comes on-line and in the other view, development is equated with adult learning. In this article, we present evidence from a variety of methodologies to argue for an interactive specialization view. In this vies; orienting tendencies present early in life ensure faces are a frequent visual input to higher cortical areas in the ventral visual pathway In this way; cortical specialization for face processing is an emergent product of the interaction of factors both intrinsic and extrinsic to the developing child. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.