How were newborns' interests tested?
The study involved 130 newborns who were tested just a few hours after being born. The children were presented with two visual stimuli at the same time: on the one hand, it was a video showing a human face and its natural movements, and on the other, a video showing a set of moving metal balls - the so-called Newton's pendulum.
It turned out that all newborns, regardless of gender, generally showed greater interest in the social stimulus, i.e. the sight of a human face. Detailed analysis showed that, on average, girls spent more time looking at a face, while boys focused more on a mechanical object.
Research findings suggest that gender differences in attention appear at the very beginning of life, before children experience the influence of their environment or gender-related social expectations. According to the researchers, the observed differences may have their source in biological factors, such as hormone levels or genetic conditions, which develop in the prenatal period.
Our previous research has shown that differences in brain structure between the sexes are present at birth and appear even before birth. The new results show that these differences concern not only brain structure, but also behavior and attention, emphasizes the first author of the study Yumnah Khan, a PhD student at the Autism Research Center at the University of Cambridge.
A study published by researchers from the University of Cambridge in 2000 showed that newborn girls looked at faces longer on average, and boys looked at objects longer on average. Since then, scientists in the field have called for the study to be repeated. No research group has attempted this until now because conducting research on newborns is very difficult.
Rigorous research methods
The current work was prepared using advanced and rigorous methods. Unlike the 2000 research, the experiments now took place under strictly controlled conditions. The children's eye movements were monitored using precise instruments. Importantly, the people analyzing the recordings did not know the child's gender or which stimulus he was looking at, which excluded the possibility of unconscious influence on the results.
This study answers the question of whether nature plays any role in shaping gender differences in the human mind and brain. The fact that we observe these differences already in the first hours of life, before environmental influences appear, indicates the important role of prenatal factors such as hormones and genes. Of course, this does not mean that upbringing is not important, it is always a complex interaction of nature and upbringing - emphasizes the project's supervisor, Prof. Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre.
What plans do scientists have?
The authors of the study emphasize that the observed differences concern the average results in groups of girls and boys, and not all children individually.
There is great variability within each gender and the ranges of results often overlap. Our future research will focus on understanding this diversity, notes Prof. Carrie Allison of ARC.
The research team plans to continue their research to see whether early differences in attention translate into later differences in children's brain development, behavior and social skills.
