iBet uBet web content aggregator. Adding the entire web to your favor.
iBet uBet web content aggregator. Adding the entire web to your favor.



Link to original content: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29093687
Itsy Bitsy Spider…: Infants React with Increased Arousal to Spiders and Snakes - PubMed Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Oct 18:8:1710.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01710. eCollection 2017.

Itsy Bitsy Spider…: Infants React with Increased Arousal to Spiders and Snakes

Stefanie Hoehl  1   2 , Kahl Hellmer  3 , Maria Johansson  3 , Gustaf Gredebäck  3
Affiliations

Itsy Bitsy Spider…: Infants React with Increased Arousal to Spiders and Snakes

Stefanie Hoehl et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Attention biases have been reported for ancestral threats like spiders and snakes in infants, children, and adults. However, it is currently unclear whether these stimuli induce increased physiological arousal in infants. Here, 6-month-old infants were presented with pictures of spiders and flowers (Study 1, within-subjects), or snakes and fish (Study 1, within-subjects; Study 2, between-subjects). Infants' pupillary responses linked to activation of the noradrenergic system were measured. Infants reacted with increased pupillary dilation indicating arousal to spiders and snakes compared with flowers and fish. Results support the notion of an evolved preparedness for developing fear of these ancestral threats.

Keywords: arousal; evolution; fear; infants; pupillary dilation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Four pairs from the total of eight color-matched pairs of flowers (Top) and spiders (Bottom) used in Study 1. Each item from the spider category has a corresponding color-matched flower item.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Four pairs from the total of eight color-matched pairs of fish (Top) and snakes (Bottom) used in Studies 1 and 2. Each item from the snake category has a corresponding color-matched fish item.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Average pupil dilation (mm) for spiders (red) and flowers (green) over 8 s with shaded areas showing the standard errors. Stimulus onset is at 0 s with a duration of 5 s at which a white screen onsets. The analysis time period is marked in light gray.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Average Pupil dilation (mm) for snakes (red) and fish (green) over 8 s with shaded areas showing the standard errors. Stimulus onset is at 0 s with a duration of 5 s at which a white screen onsets. The analysis time period is marked in light gray.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Average pupil dilation (mm) for snakes (red) and fish (green) in Study 2 over 8 s with shaded areas showing the standard errors. Stimulus onset is at 0 s with a duration of 5 s at which a white screen onsets. The analysis time period is marked in light gray.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Aktar E., Mandell D. J., de Vente W., Majdandzic M., Raijmakers M. E., Bogels S. M. (2016). Infants’ temperament and mothers’, and fathers’ depression predict infants’ attention to objects paired with emotional faces. J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 44 975–990. 10.1007/s10802-015-0085-9 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bates D., Maechler M., Bolker B., Walker S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. J. Stat. Softw. 67 1–48. 10.18637/jss.v067.i01 - DOI
    1. Bjorklund D. F. (2015). Developing adaptations. Dev. Rev. 38 13–35. 10.1016/j.dr.2015.07.002 - DOI
    1. Bjorklund D. F., Ellis B. J. (2014). Children, childhood, and development in evolutionary perspective. Dev. Rev. 34 225–264. 10.1016/j.dr.2014.05.005 - DOI
    1. Cahill L., Gorski L., Le K. (2003). Enhanced human memory consolidation with post-learning stress: interaction with the degree of arousal at encoding. Learn. Mem. 10 270–274. 10.1101/lm.62403 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources