Our Research
Our lab studies how early experiences shape the developing mind. Contrary to
the long-held view that infants are passive observers, our research demonstrates that
the infant brain generates predictions and processes complex information from birth.
We measure these abilities using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) and
eye-tracking.
We also develop open-source software and smartphone-based tools
that extend developmental research beyond the laboratory. Much of our work centers on
face and voice perception, the social signals infants encounter most frequently. By
clarifying how these perceptual abilities emerge, we hope to better understand both typical
development and the points at which it may diverge.
Focused Areas 🔬
How do movement and space change how we see faces?
In everyday life, faces move, speak, and appear at varying distances. Yet most research has relied on static photographs. Our work shows that motion and spatial context matter: three-month-olds attend more to faces with natural biological motion than to faces with artificial motion. Viewing distance also alters how the brain processes faces, and this effect is modulated by social and emotional context. We are currently examining how infants across different language environments use visual speech cues, such as lip movements, to support early language acquisition.
Is the infant brain a passive sponge or an active predictor?
A longstanding assumption held that infant brains passively absorb sensory input. Our findings challenge this view. In sleeping newborns, auditory cues activated visual cortex, suggesting the brain was generating predictions about an upcoming image even when none appeared. This cross-modal predictive activity is present from birth, not gradually acquired. We continue to investigate how these prediction mechanisms contribute to perceptual narrowing, the process by which infants become increasingly tuned to the faces they encounter most often.
How does real-world experience shape development?
Perceptual development reflects the specific environment in which a child grows up. We study how everyday experience, including neighborhood composition and caregiving context, shapes brain and behavioral outcomes. Infants raised in racially diverse neighborhoods, for instance, maintain broader face-scanning patterns across different face types. During the COVID-19 pandemic, infants with reduced face exposure showed difficulty discriminating among unfamiliar individuals. These findings indicate that the developing brain calibrates itself to the statistical regularities of its visual input.
Where do social biases come from?
Social biases are often attributed to socialization in later childhood, but our research points to an earlier origin. In the first year of life, infants process frequently encountered faces (typically own-race faces) with greater fluency, and this processing advantage becomes linked to positive affect. Less familiar face categories require more cognitive effort, which can become associated with negative affect. These early perceptual asymmetries are rooted in differential experience rather than social attitudes. This work motivates interventions that broaden infants' face experience early in development.
Publications 📚
2026
Emotional consistency as a guide for toddlers' social engagement
Fang & Xiao
Infants Recognized Other‐Race Faces When Learning Them With Incidental Emotional Sounds
Guan, Geller, Mammon, & Xiao
Evidence of Top‐Down Sensory Prediction in Neonates Within 2 Days of Birth
Xiao, Robertson, & Emberson
2025
Physical attractiveness and clinical decision-making in non-melanoma head and neck skin cancer: A cross-sectional survey study
Chalmers, Staibano, Sahlollbey, Krasotkina, Xiao, & Gupta
Emotional Consensus Matters: Impact on Toddlers' Visual Exploration Behaviors
Fang & Xiao
Enhanced Prototype Formation for Other-Race Faces in Infancy: Developmental Trajectories and Environmental Adaptations
Guan, Quinn, Yan, & Xiao
Derivation of Novel Imaging Biomarkers of Neonatal Brain Injury Using Bedside Diffuse Optical Tomography: Protocol for a Prospective Feasibility Study
Mastroianni, Vinod, Xiao, Johnson, Thabane, Fang, & Goswami
Perceptual narrowing effects in face and language domains
Xiao, Liu, & Potter
2024
Racial ambiguity impairs holistic face processing: Evidence from racially distinctive and racially ambiguous faces
Yan, Tang, Wang, Sun, & Xiao
Altered development of face recognition among infants born amid the COVID-19 pandemic
Kim, Fang, Liu, Panesar, & Xiao
Infants’ top-down perceptual modulation is specific to own-race faces
Xiao, Ghersin, Dombrowski, Boldin, & Emberson
2023
Face recognition ability can be predicted by microstructural properties of white matter: a study of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)
Zhou, Xiao, Sun, Li, & Liu
Visual Perception Is Highly Flexible and Context Dependent in Young Infants: A Case of Top-Down-Modulated Motion Perception
Xiao & Emberson
The discrimination of expressions in facial movements by infants: A study with point-light displays
Xiao, Angeli, Fang, Manera, Liu, Castiello, Ge, Lee, & Simion
Facial dominance augments perceived proximity: Evidence from a visual illusion.
Fang, Galusca, Wang, Sun, Pascalis, & Xiao
2022
The “Fat Face” illusion: A robust adaptation for processing pairs of faces
Galusca, Fang, Wang, Zhong, Sun, Pascalis, & Xiao
2020
Emotional expressions reinstate recognition of other-race faces in infants following perceptual narrowing
Quinn, Lee, Pascalis, & Xiao
2019
Infants use knowledge of emotions to augment face perception: Evidence of top-down modulation of perception early in life
Xiao & Emberson
Monolingual but not bilingual infants demonstrate racial bias in social cue use
Singh, Quinn, Xiao, & Lee
2018
Relations between scanning and recognition of own- and other-race faces in 6- and 9-month-old infants
Liu, Quinn, Xiao, Wu, Liu, & Lee
The fusiform face area plays a greater role in holistic processing for own-race faces than other-race faces
Zhou, Liu, Xiao, Wu, Li, & Lee
Infants rely more on gaze cues from own‐race than other‐race adults for learning under uncertainty
Xiao, Wu, Quinn, Liu, Tummeltshammer, Kirkham, Ge, Pascalis, & Lee
iTemplate: A template-based eye movement data analysis approach
Xiao & Lee
Older but not younger infants associate own-race faces with happy music and other-race faces with sad music
Xiao, Quinn, Liu, Ge, Pascalis, & Lee
Narrowing in face and speech perception in infancy: Developmental change in the relations between domains
Xiao, Mukaida, Quinn, Pascalis, Lee, & Itakura
2017
Processing of face race in infants: Development of perceptual and social biases
Xiao, Quinn, Lee, & Pascalis
Bilingual infants demonstrate perceptual flexibility in phoneme discrimination but perceptual constraint in face discrimination
Singh, Loh, & Xiao
Own-Group Face Recognition Bias: The Effects of Location and Reputation
Yan, Wang, Huang, Sun, Judges, Xiao, & Lee
Scanning of own- versus other-race faces in infants from racially diverse or homogenous communities
Ellis, Xiao, Lee, & Oakes
Facial movements facilitate part-based, not holistic, processing in children, adolescents, and adults
Xiao, Quinn, Ge, & Lee
2016
An adult face bias in infants that is modulated by face race
Heron-Delaney, Damon, Quinn, Méary, Xiao, Lee, & Pascalis
2015 & Prior
Development of visual preference for own- versus other-race faces in infancy.
Liu, Xiao, Xiao, Quinn, Zhang, Chen, Ge, Pascalis, & Lee
Visual scanning and recognition of Chinese, Caucasian, and racially ambiguous faces: Contributions from bottom-up facial physiognomic information and top-down knowledge of racial categories
Wang, Xiao, Quinn, Hu, Qian, Fu, & Lee
Eye tracking reveals a crucial role for facial motion in recognition of faces by infants.
Xiao, Quinn, Liu, Ge, Pascalis, & Lee
Asian infants show preference for own-race but not other-race female faces: The role of infant caregiving arrangements.
Liu, Xiao, Quinn, Zhu, Ge, Pascalis, & Lee
Natural, but not artificial, facial movements elicit the left visual field bias in infant face scanning.
Xiao, Quinn, Wheeler, Pascalis, & Lee
On the facilitative effects of face motion on face recognition and its development.
Xiao, Perrotta, Quinn, Wang, Sun, & Lee
The Eye-Size Illusion: Psychophysical Characteristics, Generality, and Relation to Holistic Face Processing
Xiao, Fu, Quinn, Sun, Xiao, Wang, Chen, Pascalis, Damon, & Lee
Elastic facial movement influences part-based but not holistic processing.
Xiao, Quinn, Ge, & Lee
Development of face scanning for own- and other-race faces in infancy
Xiao, Xiao, Quinn, Anzures, & Lee
Rigid facial motion influences featural, but not holistic, face processing.
Xiao, Quinn, Ge, & Lee
A new "fat face" illusion
Sun, Ge, Quinn, Wang, Xiao, Pascalis, Tanaka, & Lee
Similarity and difference in the processing of same- and other-race faces as revealed by eye tracking in 4- to 9-month-olds
Liu, Quinn, Wheeler, Xiao, Ge, & Lee