{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]],"date-time":"2026-06-30T07:44:26Z","timestamp":1782805466989,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,29]],"date-time":"2026-06-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782691200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004901","name":"Minas Gerais Research Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["APQ-04870-24"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["APQ-04870-24"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004901","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Brain Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Objectives: Visual attention to emotional faces provides a useful framework for investigating orienting, visual exploration, and attentional engagement across development. The present study aimed to characterize the visuospatial organization of attention in neurotypical children and to examine how this pattern is modulated by social and emotional factors. Twenty children (aged 8\u201312 years) participated in a passive viewing paradigm of facial expressions while their eye movements were recorded using eye tracking (120 Hz). Methods: Oculomotor metrics based on areas of interest (eyes, mouth, nose, face, and non-social regions) were analyzed, including time to first fixation (TTFF), number of fixations (NF), and total fixation duration (TFD), as well as total saccade count as a global index of visual scanning. Results: Results indicated statistically significant AOI-dependent interactions involving emotional expression, observer sex, stimulus sex, and stimulus race\/ethnicity, revealing region-specific modulation of visual attention. Consistently, prioritization of the eye region was observed, particularly for angry expressions, and was associated with greater fixation recurrence and duration, whereas happy and surprised expressions were associated with increased attentional allocation to the mouth. Differences related to observer sex and stimulus characteristics reflected region-specific modulations. In contrast, global saccadic dynamics remained relatively stable across experimental conditions and showed no significant effects of observer sex, stimulus sex, race\/ethnicity, or emotional expression. Conclusions: Taken together, these findings suggest that visual attention to emotional faces in childhood follows a relatively stable spatial organization characterized by preferential processing of the eye region and region-specific modulation associated with emotional expression and stimulus characteristics.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/brainsci16070683","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]],"date-time":"2026-06-30T05:58:04Z","timestamp":1782799084000},"page":"683","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Visual Attention to Emotional Faces in Children: An Eye-Tracking Study of Social Visual Attention"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Tha\u00eds de F\u00e1tima Bittencourt","family":"Oliveira","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Neuroscience, Chronobiology, and Sleep Psychology, State University of Minas Gerais (UEMG), Divin\u00f3polis 35501-170, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Erica de Freitas","family":"Marques","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Neuroscience, Chronobiology, and Sleep Psychology, State University of Minas Gerais (UEMG), Divin\u00f3polis 35501-170, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-5504-2754","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Guilherme","family":"Martins","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Neuroscience, Chronobiology, and Sleep Psychology, State University of Minas Gerais (UEMG), Divin\u00f3polis 35501-170, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Milena Fernandes de","family":"Oliveira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Neuroscience, Chronobiology, and Sleep Psychology, State University of Minas Gerais (UEMG), Divin\u00f3polis 35501-170, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Leonardo Martins Guimaraes","family":"Rossi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Neuroscience, Chronobiology, and Sleep Psychology, State University of Minas Gerais (UEMG), Divin\u00f3polis 35501-170, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carlucio Gustavo Ribeiro","family":"Filho","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Neuroscience, Chronobiology, and Sleep Psychology, State University of Minas Gerais (UEMG), Divin\u00f3polis 35501-170, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3330-8007","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Camila Fernanda Cunha","family":"Brand\u00e3o","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory for Research in Metabolism, Physiology, Physical Exercise, State University of Minas Gerais, Divin\u00f3polis 35501-170, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6042-7757","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lucas Rios","family":"Drummond","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Group on Exercise, Sports Physiology, State University of Minas Gerais, Divin\u00f3polis 35501-170, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lucas T\u00falio","family":"Lacerda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Study and Research Group on Strength Training in Health, Physical Conditioning, State University of Minas Gerais, Divin\u00f3polis 35501-170, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2437-2071","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michelle Morelo","family":"Pereira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Center for Psychological Assessment and Health, State University of Minas Gerais, Divin\u00f3polis 35501-170, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2650-451X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael Jackson Oliveira de","family":"Andrade","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Neuroscience, Chronobiology, and Sleep Psychology, State University of Minas Gerais (UEMG), Divin\u00f3polis 35501-170, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"813","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-7687.2009.00944.x","article-title":"The development of emotional face and eye gaze processing","volume":"13","author":"Hoehl","year":"2010","journal-title":"Dev. 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