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Considerable advances have been made in understanding how emotional information is coded in the brain and used in the service of adaptive behavior, yet the developmental origins of these processes remain relatively unexamined. In this article, we review recent studies in human infants and experimental animals that have highlighted the importance of the first years of life in the development of emotion-processing capacities, particularly the ability to respond preferentially to threat-alerting stimuli. We discuss mechanisms that might govern the development of these capacities and suggest directions for further research into the nature and functional significance of infants’ early-emerging biases in the perception of emotional information. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Humans in diverse cultures develop a capacity to recognize and share others’ emotional states. In this article, studies in adult and developmental populations are reviewed and synthesized to build a framework for understanding the neural bases and development of emotion recognition. It is proposed that foundations for the development of emotion recognition are provided by an experience-expectant neural circuitry that emerges early in life, biases infants to attend to biologically salient information, and is refined and specialized through experience for processing species-typical signals of emotions. It is also discussed how genetic variations and experiences during sensitive periods of development can affect the developmental process and give rise to subtle individual differences in emotion recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]