Straight gaze facilitates face processing but does not cause involuntary attentional capture

Attention to direct gaze in young and older adulthood

Attention to others' direct gaze supports many social-cognitive processes (e.g., emotion recognition, joint attention) that are known to decline with age, but it remains to be established whether attention to direct gaze itself is associated with age-related changes. We address this question across two studies. In Study 1, young (n = 42) and older (n = 45) adults completed response time tasks with non-predictive direct gaze cues and predictive direct gaze cues, designed to index reflexive and volitional covert attentional orienting to direct gaze, respectively. The results showed that young and older adults equivalently shifted their attention to predictive direct gaze cues but did not shift their attention to non-predictive direct gaze cues. Study 2 was designed to assess whether this orienting to predictive direct gaze was unique to direct gaze. A separate independent sample of young (n = 43) and older (n = 44) adults completed response time tasks with predictive direct gaze cues, predictive averted gaze cues, and predictive non-social (line orientation) cues. Attention was shifted to direct gaze but neither averted gaze nor line orientation, suggesting direct gaze was unique in being voluntarily attended-to. Pooling the predictive direct gaze task data across Studies 1 and 2, we found that young and older adults both oriented to the direct gaze cues, but that this orienting effect was reduced among older adults. The findings presented here provide novel insights into how direct gaze cues uniquely capture attention in younger and older age, and show for the first time that voluntary orienting to direct gaze is reduced in older adults. Theoretical implications are discussed.

The effects of the presence of a face and direct eye gaze on voice identity learning

We rarely become familiar with the voice of another person in isolation but usually also have access to visual identity information, thus learning to recognize their voice and face in parallel. There are conflicting findings as to whether learning to recognize voices in audiovisual vs audio-only settings is advantageous or detrimental to learning. One prominent finding shows that the presence of a face overshadows the voice, hindering voice identity learning by capturing listeners' attention (Face Overshadowing Effect; FOE). In the current study, we tested the proposal that the effect of audiovisual training on voice identity learning is driven by attentional processes. Participants learned to recognize voices through either audio-only training (Audio-Only) or through three versions of audiovisual training, where a face was presented alongside the voices. During audiovisual training, the faces were either looking at the camera (Direct Gaze), were looking to the side (Averted Gaze) or had closed eyes (No Gaze). We found a graded effect of gaze on voice identity learning: Voice identity recognition was most accurate after audio-only training and least accurate after audiovisual training including direct gaze, constituting a FOE. While effect sizes were overall small, the magnitude of FOE was halved for the Averted and No Gaze conditions. With direct gaze being associated with increased attention capture compared to averted or no gaze, the current findings suggest that incidental attention capture at least partially underpins the FOE. We discuss these findings in light of visual dominance effects and the relative informativeness of faces vs voices for identity perception.

Human face and gaze perception is highly context specific and involves bottom-up and top-down neural processing

This review summarizes human perception and processing of face and gaze signals. Face and gaze signals are important means of non-verbal social communication. The review highlights that: (1) some evidence is available suggesting that the perception and processing of facial information starts in the prenatal period; (2) the perception and processing of face identity, expression and gaze direction is highly context specific, the effect of race and culture being a case in point. Culture affects by means of experiential shaping and social categorization the way in which information on face and gaze is collected and perceived; (3) face and gaze processing occurs in the so-called 'social brain'. Accumulating evidence suggests that the processing of facial identity, facial emotional expression and gaze involves two parallel and interacting pathways: a fast and crude subcortical route and a slower cortical pathway. The flow of information is bi-directional and includes bottom-up and top-down processing. The cortical networks particularly include the fusiform gyrus, superior temporal sulcus (STS), intraparietal sulcus, temporoparietal junction and medial prefrontal cortex.

Gazing Without Eyes: A "Stare-in-the-Crowd" Effect Induced by Simple Geometric Shapes

Of the many effects that eye contact has, perhaps the most powerful is the stare-in-the-crowd effect, wherein faces are detected more readily when they look directly toward you. This is commonly attributed to others' eyes being especially salient visual stimuli, but here we ask whether stares-in-the-crowd might arise instead from a deeper property that the eyes (but not only the eyes) signify: the direction of others' attention and intentions. In fact, even simple geometric shapes can be seen as intentional, as when numerous randomly scattered cones are all consistently pointing at you. Accordingly, we show here that cones directed at the observer are detected faster (in fields of averted cones) than are cones averted away from the observer (in fields of directed cones). These results suggest that perceived intentionality itself captures attention-and that even in the absence of eyes, others' directed attention stands out in a crowd.

The influence of top-down modulation on the processing of direct gaze

Gaze or eye contact is one of the most important nonverbal social cues, which is fundamental to human social interactions. To achieve real time and dynamic face-to-face communication, our brain needs to process another person's gaze direction rapidly and without explicit instruction. In order to explain the fast and spontaneous processing of direct gaze, the fast-track modulator model was proposed. Here, we review recent developments in gaze processing research in the last decade to extend the fast-track modulator model. In particular, we propose that task demand or top-down modulation could play a more crucial role at gaze processing than formerly assumed. We suggest that under different task demands, top-down modulation can facilitate or interfere with the direct gaze effects for early visual processing. The proposed modification of the model extends the role of task demand and its implication on the direct gaze effect, as well as the need to better control for top-down processing in order to better disentangle the role of top-down and bottom-up processing on the direct gaze effect. This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of Cognition Psychology > Perception and Psychophysics Neuroscience > Cognition.

Visual preferences for direct-gaze faces in infant macaques (Macaca mulatta) with limited face exposure

From birth, human and nonhuman primates attend more to faces with direct gaze compared with averted gaze, and previous studies report that attention to the eyes is linked to the emergence of later social skills. Here, we explored whether early experiences influence attraction to eye contact in infant macaques by examining their attention to face pairs varying in their gaze direction across the first 13 weeks of life. Infants raised by human caretakers had limited conspecific interactions (nursery-reared; N = 16) and were compared to infants raised in rich social environments (mother-reared; N = 20). Both groups looked longer to faces and the eyes of direct compared to averted-gaze faces. Looking to all faces and eyes also increased with age. Nursery-reared infants did not display age-associated increases in attention to direct-gaze faces specifically, suggesting that, while there may be an initial preference for direct-gaze faces from birth, social experiences may support its early development.

Trait Anxiety Impacts the Perceived Gaze Direction of Fearful But Not Angry Faces

Facial expression and gaze direction play an important role in social communication. Previous research has demonstrated the perception of anger is enhanced by direct gaze, whereas, it is unclear whether perception of fear is enhanced by averted gaze. In addition, previous research has shown the anxiety affects the processing of facial expression and gaze direction, but hasn't measured or controlled for depression. As a result, firm conclusions cannot be made regarding the impact of individual differences in anxiety and depression on perceptions of face expressions and gaze direction. The current study attempted to reexamine the effect of the anxiety level on the processing of facial expressions and gaze direction by matching participants on depression scores. A reliable psychophysical index of the range of eye gaze angles judged as being directed at oneself [the cone of direct gaze (CoDG)] was used as the dependent variable in this study. Participants were stratified into high/low trait anxiety groups and asked to judge the gaze of angry, fearful, and neutral faces across a range of gaze directions. The result showed: (1) the perception of gaze direction was influenced by facial expression and this was modulated by trait anxiety. For the high trait anxiety group, the CoDG for angry expressions was wider than for fearful and neutral expressions, and no significant difference emerged between fearful and neutral expressions; For the low trait anxiety group, the CoDG for both angry and fearful expressions was wider than for neutral, and no significant difference emerged between angry and fearful expressions. (2) Trait anxiety modulated the perception of gaze direction only in the fearful condition, such that the fearful CoDG for the high trait anxiety group was narrower than the low trait anxiety group. This demonstrated that anxiety distinctly affected gaze perception in expressions that convey threat (angry, fearful), such that a high trait anxiety level modulated the impact of indirectly threatening expressions (fearful), and did not influence responses to directly threatening expression (angry). These findings partially support the shared signal hypothesis.