Even before we're born, human beings are sensitive to face-like shapes, according to a paper just published in Current Biology. British researchers Vincent M. Reid and colleagues of the University of Lancaster used lasers to project a pattern of three red dots onto the abdomen of pregnant women. The lasers were bright enough to be visible from inside the womb. The dots were arranged to be either "face-like", i.e. with two "eyes" above one "mouth", or inverted. The inverted condition was a control.
Because the fetus is thought to have better peripheral than central vision, the stimuli were presented at the edge of their visual field and were made to move laterally over about five seconds. Using 4D ultrasound to record fetal movements, Reid et al. found that a fetus was more likely to turn its head towards the moving "face-like" pattern, compared to the inverted control pattern.
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