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Motomura Y, Hayashi S, Kurose R, Yoshida H, Okada T, Higuchi S. Effects of others' gaze and facial expression on an observer's microsaccades and their association with ADHD tendencies. J Physiol Anthropol 2023; 42:19. [PMID: 37679805 PMCID: PMC10486107 DOI: 10.1186/s40101-023-00335-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2022] [Accepted: 07/26/2023] [Indexed: 09/09/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to examine the effect of others' gaze on an observer's microsaccades. We also aimed to conduct preliminary investigations on the relationship between the microsaccadic response to a gaze and a gazer's facial expression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tendencies. METHODS Twenty healthy undergraduate and graduate students performed a peripheral target detection task by using unpredictable gaze cues. During the task, the participants' eye movements, along with changes in pupil size and response times for target detection, were recorded. ADHD tendencies were determined using an ADHD questionnaire. RESULTS We found that consciously perceiving the gaze of another person induced the observer's attention; moreover, microsaccades were biased in the direction opposite to the gaze. Furthermore, these microsaccade biases were differentially modulated, based on the cognitive processing of the facial expressions of the gaze. Exploratory correlation analysis indicated that microsaccade biases toward gazes with fearful expressions may specifically be correlated with participant characteristics, including inattention. CONCLUSIONS Our findings support that microsaccades reflect spatial attention processing and social cognitive processing. Moreover, the exploratory correlation analysis results suggested the potential benefit of using microsaccade bias toward spatial attention to assess pathophysiological responses associated with ADHD tendencies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuki Motomura
- Department of Human Life Design, Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, 4-9-1 Shiobaru, Minamiku, Fukuoka, 815-8540, Japan.
| | - Sayuri Hayashi
- Department of Kansei Science, Graduate School of Integrated Frontier Science, Kyushu University, 4-9-1 Shiobaru, Minamiku, Fukuoka, 815-8540, Japan
- Department of Developmental Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1, Ogawahigashi, Kodaira, Tokyo, 187-0031, Japan
| | - Ryousei Kurose
- Department of Kansei Science, Graduate School of Integrated Frontier Science, Kyushu University, 4-9-1 Shiobaru, Minamiku, Fukuoka, 815-8540, Japan
| | - Hiroki Yoshida
- Department of Kansei Science, Graduate School of Integrated Frontier Science, Kyushu University, 4-9-1 Shiobaru, Minamiku, Fukuoka, 815-8540, Japan
| | - Takashi Okada
- Department of Developmental Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1, Ogawahigashi, Kodaira, Tokyo, 187-0031, Japan
| | - Shigekazu Higuchi
- Department of Human Life Design, Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, 4-9-1 Shiobaru, Minamiku, Fukuoka, 815-8540, Japan
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Breu MS, Ramezanpour H, Dicke PW, Thier P. A frontoparietal network for volitional control of gaze following. Eur J Neurosci 2023; 57:1723-1735. [PMID: 36967647 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15975] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2022] [Revised: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/22/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023]
Abstract
Gaze following is a major element of non-verbal communication and important for successful social interactions. Human gaze following is a fast and almost reflex-like behaviour, yet it can be volitionally controlled and suppressed to some extent if inappropriate or unnecessary, given the social context. In order to identify the neural basis of the cognitive control of gaze following, we carried out an event-related fMRI experiment, in which human subjects' eye movements were tracked while they were exposed to gaze cues in two distinct contexts: A baseline gaze following condition in which subjects were instructed to use gaze cues to shift their attention to a gazed-at spatial target and a control condition in which the subjects were required to ignore the gaze cue and instead to shift their attention to a distinct spatial target to be selected based on a colour mapping rule, requiring the suppression of gaze following. We could identify a suppression-related blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response in a frontoparietal network comprising dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the anterior insula, precuneus, and posterior parietal cortex (PPC). These findings suggest that overexcitation of frontoparietal circuits in turn suppressing the gaze following patch might be a potential cause of gaze following deficits in clinical populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- M S Breu
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - H Ramezanpour
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - P W Dicke
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - P Thier
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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Zavagno D, Actis-Grosso R, Daneyko O. Looking Into Mona Lisa’s Smiling Eyes: Allusion to an Illusion. Front Hum Neurosci 2022; 16:878288. [PMID: 35845241 PMCID: PMC9283865 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.878288] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2022] [Accepted: 05/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
We present results from two experiments aimed at studying the direction of Mona Lisa’s gaze and its affective expression. In experiment 1 we studied the effect of retinal image size on the perception of her gaze by manipulating observation distances of a high-quality print of the painting. Participants (N = 30) were asked to answer a simple question (is the person portrayed looking at you?) from six different distances ranging from 55 to 755 cm. One group of participants started evaluations from 55 cm; the other group did the opposite. Results show an effect of distance on the perception of Mona Lisa’s gaze as staring at the observer: from the furthest distances, the impression of a staring Mona Lisa is robust; from the nearest distances, such impression becomes ambiguous. Experiment 2 presents data concerning the direction of Mona Lisa’s gaze and whether this appears to be smiling, derived from an experiment aimed at studying the impression of gaze (direction and emotional content) in portraits (paintings and photographs). Only data concerning Mona Lisa are reported. Participants (N = 41) were randomly assigned to one of two groups: on a LCD screen, one group saw the entire head, and the other group saw only a section reproducing Mona Lisa’s eyes. Experimental sessions were two: in session 1 participants had to decide whether the image (whole-head or eyes only) was looking at them; in session 2 participants had to decide whether the head (or the eyes) was smiling. RTs from the two groups of participants were not statistically significant. Results for session 1 confirm experiment 1’s general findings. Results for session 2 clearly show that Mona Lisa is not only smiling with her face, but also with her eyes. Results are discussed in relation to the literature on Mona Lisa’s gaze and smile.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniele Zavagno
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- NeuroMI Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- BiPAC Centro Ricerche Patrimonio Storico e Culturale, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- *Correspondence: Daniele Zavagno
| | - Rossana Actis-Grosso
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- NeuroMI Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Olga Daneyko
- Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, United Kingdom
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Lebert A, Chaby L, Guillin A, Chekroun S, Vergilino-Perez D. Are You “Gazing” at Me? How Others' Gaze Direction and Facial Expression Influence Gaze Perception and Postural Control. Front Psychol 2021; 12:730953. [PMID: 35002834 PMCID: PMC8733602 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.730953] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2021] [Accepted: 12/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In everyday life, interactions between humans are generally modulated by the value attributed to the situation, which partly relies on the partner's behavior. A pleasant or cooperating partner may trigger an approach behavior in the observer, while an unpleasant or threatening partner may trigger an avoidance behavior. In this context, the correct interpretation of other's intentions is crucial to achieve satisfying social interactions. Social cues such as gaze direction and facial expression are both fundamental and interrelated. Typically, whenever gaze direction and facial expression of others communicate the same intention, it enhances both the interlocutor's gaze direction and the perception of facial expressions (i.e., shared signal hypothesis). For instance, an angry face with a direct gaze is perceived as more intense since it represents a threat to the observer. In this study, we propose to examine how the combination of others' gaze direction (direct or deviated) and emotional facial expressions (i.e., happiness, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, and neutrality) influence the observer's gaze perception and postural control. Gaze perception was indexed by the cone of direct gaze (CoDG) referring to the width over which an observer feels someone's gaze is directed at them. A wider CoDG indicates that the observer perceived the face as looking at them over a wider range of gaze directions. Conversely, a narrower CoDG indicates a decrease in the range of gaze directions perceived as direct. Postural control was examined through the center of pressure displacements reflecting postural stability and approach-avoidance tendencies. We also investigated how both gaze perception and postural control may vary according to participants' personality traits and emotional states (e.g., openness, anxiety, etc.). Our results confirmed that gaze perception is influenced by emotional faces: a wider CoDGs was observed with angry and disgusted faces while a narrower CoDG was observed for fearful faces. Furthermore, facial expressions combined with gaze direction influence participants' postural stability but not approach-avoidance behaviors. Results are discussed in the light of the approach-avoidance model, by considering how some personality traits modulate the relation between emotion and posture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angélique Lebert
- Vision Action Cognition, Université de Paris, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
- *Correspondence: Angélique Lebert
| | - Laurence Chaby
- CNRS, Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
- Université de Paris, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
| | - Amandine Guillin
- Vision Action Cognition, Université de Paris, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
| | - Samuel Chekroun
- Vision Action Cognition, Université de Paris, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
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Ravagli A, Marini F, Marino BFM, Ricciardelli P. Context Modulates Congruency Effects in Selective Attention to Social Cues. Front Psychol 2018; 9:940. [PMID: 29946281 PMCID: PMC6005850 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00940] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2018] [Accepted: 05/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Head and gaze directions are used during social interactions as essential cues to infer where someone attends. When head and gaze are oriented toward opposite directions, we need to extract socially meaningful information despite stimulus conflict. Recently, a cognitive and neural mechanism for filtering-out conflicting stimuli has been identified while performing non-social attention tasks. This mechanism is engaged proactively when conflict is anticipated in a high proportion of trials and reactively when conflict occurs infrequently. Here, we investigated whether a similar mechanism is at play for limiting distraction from conflicting social cues during gaze or head direction discrimination tasks in contexts with different probabilities of conflict. Results showed that, for the gaze direction task only (Experiment 1), inverse efficiency (IE) scores for distractor-absent trials (i.e., faces with averted gaze and centrally oriented head) were larger (indicating worse performance) when these trials were intermixed with congruent/incongruent distractor-present trials (i.e., faces with averted gaze and tilted head in the same/opposite direction) relative to when the same distractor-absent trials were shown in isolation. Moreover, on distractor-present trials, IE scores for congruent (vs. incongruent) head-gaze pairs in blocks with rare conflict were larger than in blocks with frequent conflict, suggesting that adaptation to conflict was more efficient than adaptation to infrequent events. However, when the task required discrimination of head orientation while ignoring gaze direction, performance was not impacted by both block-level and current trial congruency (Experiment 2), unless the cognitive load of the task was increased by adding a concurrent task (Experiment 3). Overall, our study demonstrates that during attention to social cues proactive cognitive control mechanisms are modulated by the expectation of conflicting stimulus information at both the block- and trial-sequence level, and by the type of task and cognitive load. This helps to clarify the inherent differences in the distracting potential of head and gaze cues during speeded social attention tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Ravagli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Francesco Marini
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, United States
- Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, Institute for Neural Computation, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States
| | | | - Paola Ricciardelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan, Italy
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Capozzi F, Ristic J. How attention gates social interactions. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2018; 1426:179-198. [PMID: 29799619 DOI: 10.1111/nyas.13854] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2018] [Revised: 03/30/2018] [Accepted: 04/24/2018] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Social interactions are at the core of social life. However, humans selectively choose their exchange partners and do not engage in all available opportunities for social encounters. In this review, we argue that attentional systems play an important role in guiding the selection of social interactions. Supported by both classic and emerging literature, we identify and characterize the three core processes-perception, interpretation, and evaluation-that interact with attentional systems to modulate selective responses to social environments. Perceptual processes facilitate attentional prioritization of social cues. Interpretative processes link attention with understanding of cues' social meanings and agents' mental states. Evaluative processes determine the perceived value of the source of social information. The interplay between attention and these three routes of processing places attention in a powerful role to manage the selection of the vast amount of social information that individuals encounter on a daily basis and, in turn, gate the selection of social interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Capozzi
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Jelena Ristic
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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Ciardo F, Ricciardelli P, Iani C. Trial-by-trial modulations in the orienting of attention elicited by gaze and arrow cues. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2018; 72:543-556. [DOI: 10.1177/1747021818769588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Recent findings suggested that the orienting of attention towards gazed at locations (i.e., the gaze cueing effect) could result from the conflict emerging in incongruent trials between the spatial information conveyed by gaze direction and the target spatial position. In two experiments, we assessed this hypothesis by investigating whether this effect is influenced by the same trial-by-trial modulations that are reported in a spatial conflict task, i.e., the Simon task. In Experiment 1, we compared the trial-by-trial modulations emerging in the Simon task with those emerging in a gaze cueing task, while in Experiment 2, we compared gaze and arrows cues. Trial-by-trial modulations were evident in both tasks. In the Simon task, correspondence sequence affected both corresponding and noncorresponding responses, this resulting in a larger Simon effect when the preceding trial was corresponding and an absent effect when the preceding trial was noncorresponding. Differently, in the gaze cueing task, congruence sequence affected only congruent responses with faster responses when the preceding trial was congruent compared to when it was incongruent, resulting in a larger gaze cuing effect when the preceding trial was congruent. Same results were evident with nonpredictive arrow cues. These findings speak against a spatial conflict account.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Ciardo
- Department of Communication and Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy
- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy
| | - Paola Ricciardelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan, Italy
| | - Cristina Iani
- Department of Communication and Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy
- Center for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
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Face stimulus eliminates antisaccade-cost: gaze following is a different kind of arrow. Exp Brain Res 2018; 236:1041-1052. [DOI: 10.1007/s00221-018-5198-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2017] [Accepted: 02/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Gaze and Arrows: The Effect of Element Orientation on Apparent Motion is Modulated by Attention. Vision (Basel) 2017; 1:vision1030021. [PMID: 31740646 PMCID: PMC6835572 DOI: 10.3390/vision1030021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2017] [Revised: 08/03/2017] [Accepted: 08/20/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
In two experiments we investigated whether stimuli that elicit automatic orienting of attention (i.e., arrow or averted gaze) could drive apparent motion perception in one of two possible directions, modulating the effect of a low-level property (the orientation of elements along the motion direction). To this end, the competing motion paradigm was used, in which at time 1, a stimulus appears in the center of the display, and at time 2, two other stimuli appear in different spatial locations. Three kinds of stimuli with eight possible orientations were used in separate blocks; (1) a line; (2) an arrow; and, (3) an averted gaze. First, since the three stimuli present in the display at time 2 should be perceived to be located at the same distance (i.e., equidistant), the threshold for perceived equidistance was calculated for each participant and then used as the customized inter-stimulus distance. Participants were asked to press the button corresponding to the direction of the perceived motion. Results show a preference for collinear motion (motions between elements oriented along the motion direction), with a higher percentage of responses for gaze and arrow stimuli. In Experiment 1, a difference between gaze- and arrow-stimuli was observed. Apparent motion was seen towards the collinear position more often for gaze than for arrow when the stimulus was pointing to the vertical directions, while the opposite was true when the stimulus was pointing to the horizontal directions. In Experiment 2, where the lightness contrast between the gaze and the background was reduced, no difference between gaze- and arrow-stimuli emerged. We interpret our results as due to the social and biological value of gaze, which solved a possible ambiguity between gaze direction and the directions conveyed by the figural properties of the contrasted background in Experiment 1. These findings are consistent with the idea that stimuli known to automatically orient visual attention modulate motion perception.
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