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Humans

Babies can identify people's faces from just 4 months old

Infants may pick up on people's faces before anything else, which could explain why they can be scared of strangers at a young age

By Jason Arunn Murugesu

29 May 2023

Babies produce a brain signal that suggests they can identify faces at 4 months old, with this signal becoming more robust from 6 months

d3sign/Getty Images

Babies may be able to identify people’s faces before anything else, such as cars or letters of the alphabet. Researchers have found that infants as young as 4 months old produce a distinct brain signal when they see an image of someone’s face, which could explain why some babies become scared of strangers at around this age.

Kalanit Grill-Spector at Stanford University in California and…

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