In the eye of the beholder: Social traits predict motor simulation during naturalistic action perception

Previous research has robustly demonstrated that eye contact between actor and observer promotes the simulation of perceived actions into the observer's own motor system, which in turn facilitates social perception and communication. The socially relevant connotation embedded in eye contact may however be different for individuals with differing social traits. Here, we examined how "normal" (i.e. non-clinical) variability in self-reported social responsiveness/autistic traits, social anxiety and interpersonal relationship style (secure, avoidant or anxious attachment) influences neural motor simulation during action observation in different gaze conditions. To do so, we analyzed an existing dataset involving 124 adult participants (age range: 18-35 years) who underwent transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) while observing an actor performing simple hand actions and simultaneously engaging in eye contact or gazing away from the observer. Motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitudes were adopted as an index of motor resonance. Regression-based analyses highlighted the role of social responsiveness and secure attachment in shaping motor resonance, indicating that socially responsive motor resonance during dyadic gaze (i.e., MEPdirect > MEPaverted) was only observed in participants displaying high levels of these traits. Furthermore, a clustering analysis identified two to three distinct subgroups of participants with unique social trait profiles, showing a clear differentiation in motor resonant patterns upon different gaze cues that is in accordance with a recent neurobiological framework of attachment. Together, results demonstrate that motor resonance within a given social interaction may serve as a sensitive tracker of socio-interactive engagement, which allows to capture subclinical inter-individual variation in relevant social traits.

Influence of autistic traits and communication role on eye contact behavior during face-to-face interaction

Eye contact is a central component in face-to-face interactions. It is important in structuring communicative exchanges and offers critical insights into others' interests and intentions. To better understand eye contact in face-to-face interactions, we applied a novel, non-intrusive deep-learning-based dual-camera system and investigated associations between eye contact and autistic traits as well as self-reported eye contact discomfort during a referential communication task, where participants and the experimenter had to guess, in turn, a word known by the other individual. Corroborating previous research, we found that participants' eye gaze and mutual eye contact were inversely related to autistic traits. In addition, our findings revealed different behaviors depending on the role in the dyad: listening and guessing were associated with increased eye contact compared with describing words. In the listening and guessing condition, only a subgroup who reported eye contact discomfort had a lower amount of eye gaze and eye contact. When describing words, higher autistic traits were associated with reduced eye gaze and eye contact. Our data indicate that eye contact is inversely associated with autistic traits when describing words, and that eye gaze is modulated by the communicative role in a conversation.

Psychophysiological responses to eye contact with a humanoid robot: Impact of perceived intentionality

Eye contact with a social robot has been shown to elicit similar psychophysiological responses to eye contact with another human. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the attention- and affect-related psychophysiological responses differentiate between direct (toward the observer) and averted gaze mainly when viewing embodied faces that are capable of social interaction, whereas pictorial or pre-recorded stimuli have no such capability. It has been suggested that genuine eye contact, as indicated by the differential psychophysiological responses to direct and averted gaze, requires a feeling of being watched by another mind. Therefore, we measured event-related potentials (N170 and frontal P300) with EEG, facial electromyography, skin conductance, and heart rate deceleration responses to seeing a humanoid robot's direct versus averted gaze, while manipulating the impression of the robot's intentionality. The results showed that the N170 and the facial zygomatic responses were greater to direct than to averted gaze of the robot, and independent of the robot's intentionality, whereas the frontal P300 responses were more positive to direct than to averted gaze only when the robot appeared intentional. The study provides further evidence that the gaze behavior of a social robot elicits attentional and affective responses and adds that the robot's seemingly autonomous social behavior plays an important role in eliciting higher-level socio-cognitive processing.

Self-reported eye contact sensitivity and face processing in chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

INTRODUCTION

22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22qDS) has been associated with varying levels of social impairments, and with atypical visual scanning of faces. The present study explored whether self-reported sensitivity to eye contact might be related to these phenomena.

METHOD

Individuals with confirmed 22qDS were interviewed about their experience and possible discomfort with eye contact. In cases where individuals expresesed discomfort, they were subsequently asked about coping mechanisms used to deal with this discomfort. In addition to self-reported eye contact discomfort, gaze to emotional faces was examined using eye tracking.

RESULTS

In the subgroup of individuals who reported discomfort during eye contact, eye tracking results revealed a lower amount of gaze in the eyes of neutral faces, as well as the absence of the typical left visual field (LVF) bias, indicative of alterations in hemispheric lateralization. This subgroup also scored lower on a measure of everyday functioning.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results show that, by simply asking individuals with this social and communicative disorder about eye gaze discomfort, we may better understand the specific challenges that they experience. Moreover, information gained from such first-person reports together with eye-tracking measures further informs about the integrity of their face processing system, as well as about the nature and degree of impairment in this population.

Social context modulates autonomic responses to direct eye contact

Eye contact with another person (social gaze) can evoke emotions, produce autonomic arousal, and influence behavior. Gaze cues can be evocative even when presented in static pictures of faces suggesting that responses depend on low-level visual features of gaze stimuli. The current study examined whether emotional gaze responses depend on the physical stimulus properties of an eye contact experience versus the cognitive evaluation of the social context of gaze. This was done by comparing skin conductance responses (SCR), an index of emotional arousal, during episodes of social gaze and 'self-gaze' (gazing at one's own eyes in a mirror), keeping other aspects of the viewing conditions constant. We compared SCRs during social gaze and self-gaze in forty participant pairs. Each participant engaged in ten, 20 second eye contact trials, alternating between social and self-gaze. Self-gaze episodes produced significant SCRs but social gaze SCR's were larger and occurred more reliably. SCRs decreased across trials (habituation effect) in both conditions. We speculated that social gaze between opposite sex partners might yield larger SCRs but this was not found. Overall, these results conceptually replicate previous findings of (likely top-town) cognitive regulation of autonomic gaze responses based on evaluation of the social context.

Skin conductance, facial EMG, and heart rate responses in multi-person gaze interactions

Previous literature has reported enhanced affective and attentional responses to faces with a direct vs. averted gaze. Typically, in these studies, only single faces were presented. However, daily social encounters often involve interaction with more than just one person. By employing an experimental set-up in which the participants believed they were interacting with two other persons, the present study, for the first time, investigated participants' skin conductance, facial electromyographic (EMG), and heart rate deceleration responses in multi-person eye contact situations. Responses were measured in two different social contexts; i) when the participants observed eye contact between two other persons ('vicarious eye contact effect'), and ii) when the participants themselves received direct gaze either from one or two persons. The results showed that the skin conductance, facial EMG, and heart rate deceleration responses elicited by observing two other persons making eye contact did not differ from those elicited by observing one person looking at the other while the other person was not reciprocating with their gaze. As a novel finding, the results showed that receiving direct gaze from two persons elicited greater affective arousal and zygomatic EMG, but smaller heart rate deceleration responses in participants than receiving direct gaze from one person only. The findings are thoroughly discussed and it is concluded that physiological responses in multi-person interaction contexts are influenced by many social effects between the interactors and can be markedly different from those observed in two-person interactions.

Perception of eye contact, self-referential thinking and age

Increased thinking about one's self has been proposed to widen the gaze cone, that is, the range of gaze deviations that an observer judges as looking directly at them (eye contact). This study investigated the effects of a self-referential thinking manipulation and demographic factors on the gaze cone. In a preregistered experiment (N = 200), the self-referential thinking manipulation, as compared to a control manipulation, did not influence the gaze cone, or the use of first-person pronouns in a manipulation check measuring self-referential processing. This may indicate a failure of the manipulation and participants' lack of effort. However, participants' age was significantly correlated with both measures: older people had wider gaze cones and used more self-referring pronouns. A second experiment (N = 300) further examined the effect of the manipulation and demographic factors on self-referential processing, and the results were replicated. These findings may reflect age-related self-reference and positivity effects.

Eye contact avoidance in crowds: A large wearable eye-tracking study

Eye contact is essential for human interactions. We investigated whether humans are able to avoid eye contact while navigating crowds. At a science festival, we fitted 62 participants with a wearable eye tracker and instructed them to walk a route. Half of the participants were further instructed to avoid eye contact. We report that humans can flexibly allocate their gaze while navigating crowds and avoid eye contact primarily by orienting their head and eyes towards the floor. We discuss implications for crowd navigation and gaze behavior. In addition, we address a number of issues encountered in such field studies with regard to data quality, control of the environment, and participant adherence to instructions. We stress that methodological innovation and scientific progress are strongly interrelated.

Discrepancy between high non-verbal intelligence and low accuracy at reading emotional expressions in the eyes reflects the magnitude of social-emotional difficulties in autism

Many so-called "high functioning" autistic individuals struggle with daily living skills, and have poorer than expected adult outcomes in employment, relationships, and quality of life. Significant discrepancies between non-verbal intelligence and emotional processing can be observed in autism, but the role of the magnitude of this gap in achieving potential psychosocial outcome is not known. Here, we show in a large group of participants (n = 107), that only among those with an autism diagnosis (n = 33), the gap between non-verbal intelligence (as measured by Raven's matrices) and the ability to perform the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test significantly predicts self-perceived emotional/social difficulties as assessed by the Empathy Quotient. Our results suggest that it is specifically the magnitude of the gap between (high) levels of abstract reasoning skills and poor proficiency in reading emotions expressed by the eyes that predicts self-perceived difficulties in emotional and social interactions among adults with autism. A better understanding of the underlying causes of the discrepancy between potential and actual psychosocial outcomes is the first step toward developing the most appropriate support for this vulnerable population, and our study offers some potentially important insights in this regard.

Embodied teacher identity: a qualitative study on 'practical sense' as a basic pedagogical condition in times of Covid-19

Worldwide, the Covid-19 pandemic has transformed teaching contexts rapidly. Studies on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have largely focused on students' learning and well-being. In contrast, little is known about how emergency online teaching affects teachers. The aim of this study was to examine how disrupted teaching contexts during the Covid-19 pandemic affected academic teacher identities in health science education. Interviews were conducted with 19 experienced lecturers in health science education from two universities. Interview data were analysed using systematic text condensation. The established codes were compared across interviews to identify common themes and subsequently synthesized into descriptions of the emerging phenomena. Findings indicated that a form of embodied teacher identity, i.e. internalized teaching practices turned into dispositions, constituted a basic pedagogical condition and a resource for the teachers, and that the sudden change in the teaching context caused a loss of teacher identity. This identity loss was related to an incorporated understanding and use of the teacher's sense of the classroom (subtheme 1), non-verbal feedback from students (subtheme 2) and reciprocal visual contact (subtheme 3). Data also indicated that teachers' ability to adapt their teaching to students' needs while teaching and teachers' motivation and job satisfaction may have suffered. Universities should carefully consider how to cultivate sustainable and adaptive teacher identities compatible with the increasing digitalization of learning environments. Teaching is an embodied affair, and teacher identities are sensitive to structural changes in teaching contexts.

A prosocial function of head-gaze aversion and head-cocking in common marmosets

Gaze aversion is a behavior adopted by several mammalian and non-mammalian species in response to eye contact, and is usually interpreted as a reaction to a perceived threat. Unlike many other primate species, common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) are thought to have a high tolerance for direct gaze, barely exhibiting gaze avoidance towards conspecifics and humans. Here we show that this does not hold for marmosets interacting with a familiar experimenter who suddenly establishes eye contact in a playful interaction (peekaboo). Video footage synchronously recorded from the perspective of the marmoset and the experimenter showed that the monkeys consistently alternated between eye contact and head-gaze aversion, and that these responses were often preceded by head-cocking. We hypothesize that this behavioral strategy helps marmosets to temporarily disengage from emotionally overwhelming social stimulation due to sight of another individual's face, in order to prepare for a new round of affiliative face-to-face interactions.

A Pilot Study Exploring Social Validity Ratings of Social Profiles for College Students

Nuhu and Rapp identified three profiles undergraduates displayed during social interactions. We evaluated the social validity of these three profiles in two studies. In Study 1 we presented video exemplars of speakers representing each profile to undergraduate participants and asked them to rate the speaker in respect to various statements. Results showed that one profile was rated significantly different than the other two profiles on all but one statement. In Study 2 we further evaluated the role of eye contact in the profile that participants rated differently in Study 1. Results from Study 2 showed that a speaker engaging in low eye contact was rated lower than a speaker engaging in either a validated or high level of eye contact. Likewise, participants with self-reported high social competency provided more negative ratings of a speaker who displayed low eye contact than participants with self-reported Moderate and Low social competency.

Attentional processes during emotional face perception in social anxiety disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis of eye-tracking findings

Background In recent years, a growing body of eye-tracking research has investigated gaze behavior in individuals with social anxiety during the visual perception of emotional stimuli. The aim of this article was to review and synthesize studies examining attention orientation in patients with clinical social anxiety by means of eye-tracking methodology. Methods Through a systematic search, 30 articles were identified, including 11 studies in which single emotional faces were used as stimuli and seven eligible studies in which threatening faces were paired with neutral stimuli. Meta-analyses were conducted to compare prolonged eye-contact behavior and early attentional biases to threats in individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and healthy controls. Results Moderate group differences were revealed for single face viewing studies, with SAD patients showing significantly reduced eye contact with negative (Hedges' g = -0.67) and positive emotional faces (g = -0.49) compared to that of healthy participants. Type of task and duration of stimulus presentation were (marginally) significant moderators of between-study variance in effect size. Small but significant group differences were found for early attentional biases toward angry faces versus neutral stimuli (g = 0.21) but not toward happy faces versus neutral stimuli (g = 0.05). Preliminary evidence for a hyperscanning strategy in SAD patients relative to healthy controls emerged (g = 0.42). Limitations The number of included studies with face pairings was low, and two studies were excluded due to unavailable data. Conclusions Our results suggest that eye contact avoidance with emotional faces is a prominent feature in SAD patients. Patients might benefit from guidance to learn to make adequate eye contact during therapeutic interventions, such as exposure therapy. SAD patients demonstrated slightly heightened attention allocation toward angry faces relative to that of healthy participants during early processing stages. Threat biases can be potential targets for attention modification training as an adjuvant to other treatments. Future research on early attentional processes may benefit from improved arrangements of paired stimuli to increase the psychometric properties of initial attention indices.

Is there a 'zone of eye contact' within the borders of the face?

Eye contact is a salient feature of everyday interactions, yet it is not obvious what the physical conditions are under which we feel that we have eye contact with another person. Here we measure the range of locations that gaze can fall on a person's face to elicit a sense of eye contact. Participants made judgements about eye contact while viewing rendered images of faces with finely-varying gaze direction at a close interpersonal distance (50 cm). The 'zone of eye contact' tends to peak between the two eyes and is often surprisingly narrower than the observer's actual eye region. Indeed, the zone tends to extend further across the face in height than in width. This shares an interesting parallel with the 'cyclopean eye' of visual perspective - our sense of looking out from a single point in space despite the physical separation of our two eyes. The distribution of eye-contact strength across the face can be modelled at the individual-subject level as a 2D Gaussian function. Perception of eye contact is more precise than the sense of having one's face looked at, which captures a wider range of gaze locations in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions, at least at the close viewing distance used in the present study. These features of eye-contact perception are very similar cross-culturally, tested here in Australian and Japanese university students. However, the shape and position of the zone of eye contact does vary depending on recent sensory experience: adaptation to faces with averted gaze causes a pronounced shift and widening of the zone across the face, and judgements about eye contact also show a positive serial dependence. Together, these results provide insight into the conditions under which eye contact is felt, with respect to face morphology, culture, and sensory context.

Hidden intentions: Visual awareness prioritizes perceived attention even without eyes or faces

Eye contact is a powerful social signal, and it readily captures attention. Recent work has suggested that direct gaze is prioritized even unconsciously: faces rendered invisible via interocular suppression enter awareness faster when they look directly at (vs. away from) you. Such effects may be driven in a relatively low level way by the special visual properties of eyes, per se, but here we asked whether they might instead arise from the perception of a deeper property: being the focus of another agent's attention and/or intentions. We report five experiments which collectively explore whether visual awareness also prioritizes distinctly non-eye-like stimuli that nevertheless convey directedness. We first showed that directed (vs. averted) 'mouth' shapes also break through into awareness faster, after being rendered invisible by continuous flash suppression - a direct 'gaze' effect without any eyes. But such effects could still be specific to faces (if not eyes), so we next asked whether the prioritization of directed intentions would still occur even for stimuli that have no faces at all. In fact, even simple geometric shapes can be seen as intentional, as when numerous randomly scattered cones are all consistently pointing at you. And indeed, even such directed (vs. averted) cones entered awareness faster - a direct 'gaze' effect without any facial cues. Additional control experiments ruled out effects of both symmetry and response biases. We conclude that the perception of directed intentions is sufficient to boost objects into awareness, and that putative eye-contact effects might instead reflect more general phenomena of 'mind contact'.

How the fear of COVID-19 changed the way we look at human faces

Do we look at persons currently or previously affected by COVID-19 the same way as we do with healthy ones? In this eye-tracking study, we investigated how participants (N = 54) looked at faces of individuals presented as "COVID-19 Free", "Sick with COVID-19", or "Recovered from COVID-19". Results showed that participants tend to look at the eyes of COVID-19-free faces longer than at those of both COVID-19-related faces. Crucially, we also found an increase of visual attention for the mouth of the COVID-19-related faces, possibly due to the threatening characterisation of such area as a transmission vehicle for SARS-CoV-2. Thus, by detailing how people dynamically changed the way of looking at faces as a function of the perceived risk of contagion, we provide the first evidence in the literature about the impact of the pandemic on the most basic level of social interaction.

Meeting another's gaze shortens subjective time by capturing attention

Gaze directed at the observer (direct gaze) is an important and highly salient social signal with multiple effects on cognitive processes and behavior. It is disputed whether the effect of direct gaze is caused by attentional capture or increased arousal. Time estimation may provide an answer because attentional capture predicts an underestimation of time whereas arousal predicts an overestimation. In a temporal bisection task, observers were required to classify the duration of a stimulus as short or long. Stimulus duration was selected randomly between 988 and 1479 ms. When gaze was directed at the observer, participants underestimated stimulus duration, suggesting that effects of direct gaze are caused by attentional capture, not increased arousal. Critically, this effect was limited to dynamic stimuli where gaze appeared to move toward the participant. The underestimation was present with stimuli showing a full face, but also with stimuli showing only the eye region, inverted faces and high-contrast eye-like stimuli. However, it was absent with static pictures of full faces and dynamic nonfigurative stimuli. Because the effect of direct gaze depended on motion, which is common in naturalistic scenes, more consideration needs to be given to the ecological validity of stimuli in the study of social attention.

Comparing Frequency of Listener Responses Between Adolescents with and Without ASD During Conversation

In conversation, the listener plays an active role in conversation success, specifically by providing listener feedback which signals comprehension and interest. Previous work has shown that frequency of feedback positively correlates with conversation success. Because individuals with ASD are known to struggle with various conversational skills, e.g., turn-taking and commenting, this study examines their use of listener feedback by comparing the frequency of feedback produced by 20 adolescents with ASD and 23 neurotypical (NT) adolescents. We coded verbal and nonverbal listener feedback during the time when participants were listening in a semi-structured interview with a research assistant. Results show that ASD participants produced significantly fewer instances of listener feedback than NT adolescents, which likely contributes to difficulties with social interactions.

Divergent effects of oxytocin on eye contact in bonobos and chimpanzees

Oxytocin has drawn significant research attention for its role in modulating mammalian social behavior. Despite generally conserved roles, oxytocin can function differently even in closely related species. Previous studies have shown that bonobos and chimpanzees, humans' two closest relatives, demonstrate considerable behavioral differences, including that bonobos look more at others' eyes than chimpanzees. Oxytocin is known to increase attention to another's eyes in many mammalian species (e.g. dogs, monkeys, and humans), yet this effect has not been tested in any nonhuman great ape species. This study examined how intranasally-administered oxytocin affects eye contact in bonobos and chimpanzees using eye tracking. Following administration of either oxytocin or saline control with a nebulizer, chimpanzees (n = 6) and bonobos (n = 5) were shown images of conspecific faces while their eye movement was recorded. Oxytocin changed the eye-looking behavior of bonobos and chimpanzees differently. We found that oxytocin increased eye contact in bonobos but not chimpanzees; while one chimpanzee showed an increase, interestingly, 5 out of 6 chimpanzees showed decreased looking to the eyes compared to the mouth, suggesting moderate eye avoidance. Given the importance of eye contact in their social interactions, our results suggest that oxytocin may play modulatory roles in bonobos' and chimpanzees' species-specific social behavior and underscore the importance of oxytocin in hominid social evolution.

Descriptive Analyses of Behaviors during Social Interactions

BACKGROUND

Individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders demonstrate difficulty initiating and maintaining eye contact from early infancy into adulthood. However, interventions aimed at improving eye contact lack normative eye contact data to guide treatment.

METHODS

The current study quantified behaviors (e.g., eye contact, vocalizations, head/shoulder, and hand movement) exhibited by college students during social encounters to gather normative data regarding the duration of targeted behaviors. A latent profile analysis was also used to identify participants' patterns of responding.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Participants engaged in high levels of eye contact (M =89.3% of time) and head/shoulder movement (M= 85.0% of time), moderate levels of vocalizations (M= 65.0% of time), and low levels of hand movement (M =35% of time). Results highlight the need for social skills training procedures to target multiple behaviors in conjunction with eye contact and vocalizations. In addition, studies evaluating treatment packages or assessing the relationship between eye contact and other variables (e.g., physiological responses) may use these normative data to inform decisions.

Eye contact in active and passive viewing: Event-related brain potential evidence from a combined eye tracking and EEG study

Eye contact is a salient social cue, which is assumed to influence already early neural correlates of face perception. Specifically, the N170 component of the event-related potential (ERP) has often been found to be larger for faces with an averted gaze as compared to faces that directly look at the observer. In most existing ERP studies, effects of eye contact were investigated under comparatively artificial conditions where participants were instructed to maintain a steady fixation while they passively observed gaze changes in the stimulus face. It is therefore unclear to what extent neural correlates of eye contact generalize to more naturalistic situations that involve a continuous interplay between directed and averted gaze between the communication partners. To start bridging this gap, the present study compared the passive viewing of gaze changes to an active condition in which the participant's own gaze (measured online with an eye tracker) interacted with the gaze position of a continuously presented stimulus face. We also investigated whether eye contact effects were modulated by the face's emotional expression. In both the passive and the active viewing condition, N170 amplitudes were larger when the gaze of the stimulus faces was averted rather than directed towards the participant. Furthermore, eye contact decreased P300 amplitudes in both conditions. The emotional expression of the face also modulated the N170, but this effect did not interact with that of gaze direction. We conclude that the neural correlates of gaze perception during active gaze interactions are comparable to those found during passive viewing, encouraging the further study of eye contact effects in more naturalistic settings.

Intentionally distracting: Working memory is disrupted by the perception of other agents attending to you - even without eye-gaze cues

Of all the visual stimuli you can perceive, perhaps the most important are other people's eyes. And this is especially true when those eyes are looking at you: direct gaze has profound influences, even at the level of basic cognitive processes such as working memory. For example, memory for the properties of simple geometric shapes is disrupted by the presence of other eyes gazing at you. But are such effects really specific to direct gaze per se? Seeing eyes is undoubtedly important, but presumably only because of what it tells us about the "mind behind the eyes" - i.e., about others' attention and intentions. This suggests that the same effects might arise even without eyes, as long as an agent's directed attention is conveyed by other means. Here we tested the impact on working memory of simple "mouth" shapes - which in no way resemble eyes, yet can still be readily seen as intentionally facing you (or not). Just as with gaze cues, the ability to detect changes in geometric shapes was impaired by direct (compared to averted) mouths - but not in very similar control stimuli that were not perceived as intentional. We conclude that this disruption of working memory reflects a general phenomenon of "mind contact," rather than a specific effect of eye contact.

Atypical Pattern of Frontal EEG Asymmetry for Direct Gaze in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study examined approach-motivation related brain activity (frontal electroencephalogram [EEG] asymmetry) in response to direct and averted gaze in 3- to 6-year-old typically developing (TD) children, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and those with intellectual disability (ID). We found that, in TD children, direct gaze elicited greater approach-related frontal EEG activity than did downcast gaze. This pattern of activity was in contrast to that observed in children with ASD, who showed greater approach-related activity in response to downcast gaze than to direct gaze. ID children did not differ in their responses to different gaze conditions. These findings indicate that another person’s direct gaze does not elicit approach-motivation related brain activity in young children with ASD.

Attachment styles have a modulatory impact on psychophysiological arousal evoked by reciprocated and unreciprocated gaze

Gaze processing plays an essential role during social interactions. Here, it was investigated whether variations in attachment style (secure, anxious and avoidant) were associated with differential expressions of sympathetic autonomic arousal upon live dyadic gaze interactions. To do so, 47 participants were presented with either reciprocated or unreciprocated eye gaze from a live model and skin conductance responses (SCRs) were collected. In line with previous observations, SCRs and subjective ratings of arousal were higher in response to reciprocated, compared to unreciprocated gaze. In terms of the modulation by attachment style, it was shown that participants with low attachment security and high attachment avoidance displayed overall higher sympathetic arousal upon the presentation of the live dyadic gaze cues, irrespective of whether the observed model showed reciprocal or unreciprocated gaze. Together, these observations indicate that attachment styles have a modulatory effect on individuals' psychophysiological responses to dyadic gaze interactions.

The impact of eye contact on the sense of agency

Recent research suggests that eye contact can lead to enhanced self-awareness. A related phenomenon, the sense of agency deals with the notion of the self as the origin of our actions. Possible links between eye contact and agency have been so far neglected. Here, we investigated whether an implicit sense of agency could be modulated by eye gaze. We asked participants to respond (button press) to a face stimulus: looking or not at the participant (experiment 1); or displaying distinct eye gaze before or after a mask (experiment 2). After each trial, participants estimated the time between their key press and the ensuing effects. We found enhanced intentional binding for conditions that involved direct compared to averted gaze. This study supports the idea that eye contact is an important cue that affects complex cognitive processes and suggests that modulating self-processing can impact the sense of agency.

Seeing eye-to-eye: Social gaze interactions influence gaze direction identification

We tested whether gaze direction identification of individual faces can be modulated by prior social gaze encounters. In two experiments, participants first completed a joint-gaze learning task using a saccade/antisaccade paradigm. Participants would encounter some ‘joint-gaze faces’ that would consistently look at the participants saccade goal before participants looked there (Experiment 1) or would follow the participants gaze to the target (Experiment 2). ‘Non-joint-gaze faces’ would consistently look in the opposite direction. Participants then completed a second task in which they judged the gaze direction of the faces they had previously encountered. Participants were less likely to erroneously report faces with slightly deviated gaze as looking directly at them if the face had previously never engaged in joint gaze with them. However, this bias was only present when those faces had looked first (Experiment 1) and not when the faces looked after participants (Experiment 2). Comparing these data with gaze identification responses of a control group that did not complete any joint-gaze learning phase revealed that the difference in gaze identification in Experiment 1 is likely driven by a lowering of direct gaze bias in response to non-joint-gaze faces. Thus, previous joint-gaze experiences can affect gaze direction judgements at an identity-specific level. However, this modulation may rely on the socio-cognitive information available from viewing other’s initiation behaviours, especially when they fail to engage in social contact.

Low positive affect display mediates the association between borderline personality disorder and negative evaluations at zero acquaintance

BACKGROUND

Several recent studies have demonstrated that naïve raters tend to evaluate individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) negatively at zero-acquaintance (i.e., in a 'first impression' type situation, where the rater has no knowledge of the individual and no prior interactions with them). Specifically, individuals with BPD were evaluated as less trustworthy, likeable, and cooperative than healthy participants (HCs). Based on previous impression formation studies, we hypothesized that the non-verbal cues positive affect display, negative affect display, and eye contact contribute to negative first impressions of those with BPD.

METHODS

To address this question, we recruited 101 participants that rated the degree of positive affect display, negative affect display, and eye contact in 52 videos of age-and gender-matched BPD and HC participants. We hypothesized that low positive affect display, high negative affect display, and eye contact would mediate the association between group (BPD vs. HC) and ratings of trustworthiness, likeability, and cooperativeness.

RESULTS

Ratings for positive affect display were significantly lower and those for negative affect display significantly higher for BPD versus HC targets, whereas eye contact did not differ significantly between groups. In multiple mediation models, positive affect display significantly mediated the association between group and trustworthiness/likeability, whereas negative affect display only mediated the association between group and likeability. None of the individual cues was a significant mediator of the association between group and cooperation.

CONCLUSIONS

We emphasize therapeutic possibilities to improve positive affect display -and thus overall first impressions- to increase the chances of forming social bonds for BPD individuals.

Eye contact reduces lying

The perception of watching eyes has been found to reduce dishonest behavior. This effect, however, has only been shown in situations where it can be explained by increased adherence to rules and norms, and thus a watching-eyes effect on dishonesty per se has not been demonstrated. Moreover, the effect has been investigated only with images of watching eyes, not in an interactive situation with a live person, which may arguably have different effects on behavior. In the present study, the effect of watching eyes on dishonesty was investigated with an interactive computer game of lying. Participants played the game against a confederate, whom they believed to be another participant. On each trial, they were briefly presented with a view of the confederate, after which they chose whether to lie in the game. The confederate alternated between the use of direct and downward gaze. The results showed that another individual's direct gaze reduced lying in the game. The findings have implications for both everyday and professional situations, such as clinical conversations and police interrogations.

Eye contact modulates facial mimicry in 4-month-old infants: An EMG and fNIRS study

Mimicry, the tendency to spontaneously and unconsciously copy others' behaviour, plays an important role in social interactions. It facilitates rapport between strangers, and is flexibly modulated by social signals, such as eye contact. However, little is known about the development of this phenomenon in infancy, and it is unknown whether mimicry is modulated by social signals from early in life. Here we addressed this question by presenting 4-month-old infants with videos of models performing facial actions (e.g., mouth opening, eyebrow raising) and hand actions (e.g., hand opening and closing, finger actions) accompanied by direct or averted gaze, while we measured their facial and hand muscle responses using electromyography to obtain an index of mimicry (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2 the infants observed the same stimuli while we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to investigate the brain regions involved in modulating mimicry by eye contact. We found that 4-month-olds only showed evidence of mimicry when they observed facial actions accompanied by direct gaze. Experiment 2 suggests that this selective facial mimicry may have been associated with activation over posterior superior temporal sulcus. These findings provide the first demonstration of modulation of mimicry by social signals in young human infants, and suggest that mimicry plays an important role in social interactions from early in life.

Using Shaping to Teach Eye Contact to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The current study used a shaping procedure to teach three preschool-aged children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder to make eye contact with the instructor for a duration of 3 s. Then, eye contact was taught during breaks in instruction. Following the initial intervention, the frequency of reinforcement was decreased while training for generalization across instructors and locations. All three children acquired quick and sustained eye contact, which maintained after 1 month without the need for prompting. This study provides an alternative method for teaching young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder to make eye contact without the need for prompting; outlines an approach for teaching eye contact when baseline levels of eye contact are severely low and/or the child is actively avoiding eye contact; describes a successful method for thinning the schedule of reinforcement and introducing instructional demands; and recommends a practical technique for gaining attention before delivering an instructional demand.

To mirror or not to mirror upon mutual gaze, oxytocin can pave the way: A cross-over randomized placebo-controlled trial

The eyes constitute a highly salient cue to communicate social intent. Previous research showed that direct eye contact between two individuals can readily evoke an increased propensity to 'mirror' other peoples' actions. Considering the implicated role of the prosocial neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) in enhancing the saliency of social cues and modulating approach/avoidance motivational tendencies, the current study adopted the non-invasive brain stimulation technique transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to explore whether a single dose of intranasal OXT (24 IU) modulated (enhanced) a person's propensity to show heightened mirroring or motor resonance upon salient social cues, such as eye contact. The study involved a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial with twenty-seven healthy adult men (19-32 y). By applying single-pulse TMS over the primary motor cortex during movement observation, it was shown that motor resonance was significantly higher when movement observation was accompanied by direct, compared to averted gaze, but that a single dose of OXT did not uniformly enhance this effect. Significant moderations of the treatment effect were noted however, indicating that participants with high self-reports of attachment avoidance displayed a stronger OXT-treatment effect (enhancement of motor resonance upon direct eye contact), compared to participants with low attachment avoidance. Particularly, while participants with high attachment avoidance initially displayed a reduced propensity to increase their motor resonance upon direct eye contact, a single dose of OXT was able to promote an otherwise avoidant individual's propensity to engage in motor resonance upon a salient social cue such as eye contact.

Increased Eye Contact During Conversation Compared to Play in Children With Autism

Children with autism have atypical gaze behavior but it is unknown whether gaze differs during distinct types of reciprocal interactions. Typically developing children (N = 20) and children with autism (N = 20) (4-13 years) made similar amounts of eye contact with an examiner during a conversation. Surprisingly, there was minimal eye contact during interactive play in both groups. Gaze behavior was stable across 8 weeks in children with autism (N = 15). Lastly, gaze behavior during conversation but not play was associated with autism social affect severity scores (ADOS CSS SA) and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2). Together findings suggests that eye contact in typical and atypical development is influenced by subtle changes in context, which has implications for optimizing assessments of social communication skills.

Gaze-Based Assessments of Vigilance and Avoidance in Social Anxiety: a Review

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

A broad base of research has sought to identify the biases in selective attention which characterize social anxiety, with the emergent use of eye tracking-based methods. This article seeks to provide a review of eye tracking studies examining selective attention biases in social anxiety.

RECENT FINDINGS

Across a number of contexts, social anxiety may be associated with a mix of both vigilant and avoidant patterns of attention with respect to the processing of emotional social stimuli. Socially anxious individuals may additionally avoid maintaining eye contact and may exhibit a generalized vigilance via hyperscanning of their environment. The findings highlight the utility of eye tracking methods for increasing understanding of the gaze-based biases which characterize social anxiety disorder, with promising avenues for future research.

Altered sensitivity to social gaze in the FMR1 premutation and pragmatic language competence

Background

The FMR1 premutation affects 1:291 women and is associated with a range of cognitive, affective, and physical health complications, including deficits in pragmatic language (i.e., social language). This study investigated attention to eye gaze as a fundamental social-cognitive skill that may be impaired in the FMR1 premutation and could underlie pragmatic deficits. Given the high prevalence of the FMR1 premutation, efforts to define its phenotype and mechanistic underpinnings have significant public health implications.

Methods

Thirty-five women with the FMR1 premutation and 20 control women completed an eye-tracking paradigm that recorded time spent dwelling within the eye region in response to a face displaying either direct or averted gaze. Pragmatic language ability was coded from a conversational sample using the Pragmatic Rating Scale.

Results

Women with the FMR1 premutation failed to show attentional preference to direct gaze and spent more time dwelling on the averted eyes relative to controls. While dwelling on the eyes was associated with better pragmatic language performance in controls, these variables were unrelated in the women with the FMR1 premutation.

Conclusions

Altered sensitivity to social gaze, characterized by increased salience of averted gaze, was observed among women with the FMR1 premutation. Furthermore, women with the FMR1 premutation were unable to capitalize on information conveyed through the eyes to enhance social-communicative engagement, which differed from patterns seen in controls. These findings contribute to the growing characterization of social and communication phenotypes associated with the FMR1 premutation.

Frontal temporal and parietal systems synchronize within and across brains during live eye-to-eye contact

Human eye-to-eye contact is a primary source of social cues and communication. In spite of the biological significance of this interpersonal interaction, the underlying neural processes are not well-understood. This knowledge gap, in part, reflects limitations of conventional neuroimaging methods, including solitary confinement in the bore of a scanner and minimal tolerance of head movement that constrain investigations of natural, two-person interactions. However, these limitations are substantially resolved by recent technical developments in functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a non-invasive spectral absorbance technique that detects changes in blood oxygen levels in the brain by using surface-mounted optical sensors. Functional NIRS is tolerant of limited head motion and enables simultaneous acquisitions of neural signals from two interacting partners in natural conditions. We employ fNIRS to advance a data-driven theoretical framework for two-person neuroscience motivated by the Interactive Brain Hypothesis which proposes that interpersonal interaction between individuals evokes neural mechanisms not engaged during solo, non-interactive, behaviors. Within this context, two specific hypotheses related to eye-to-eye contact, functional specificity and functional synchrony, were tested. The functional specificity hypothesis proposes that eye-to-eye contact engages specialized, within-brain, neural systems; and the functional synchrony hypothesis proposes that eye-to-eye contact engages specialized, across-brain, neural processors that are synchronized between dyads. Signals acquired during eye-to-eye contact between partners (interactive condition) were compared to signals acquired during mutual gaze at the eyes of a picture-face (non-interactive condition). In accordance with the specificity hypothesis, responses during eye-to-eye contact were greater than eye-to-picture gaze for a left frontal cluster that included pars opercularis (associated with canonical language production functions known as Broca's region), pre- and supplementary motor cortices (associated with articulatory systems), as well as the subcentral area. This frontal cluster was also functionally connected to a cluster located in the left superior temporal gyrus (associated with canonical language receptive functions known as Wernicke's region), primary somatosensory cortex, and the subcentral area. In accordance with the functional synchrony hypothesis, cross-brain coherence during eye-to-eye contact relative to eye-to-picture gaze increased for signals originating within left superior temporal, middle temporal, and supramarginal gyri as well as the pre- and supplementary motor cortices of both interacting brains. These synchronous cross-brain regions are also associated with known language functions, and were partner-specific (i.e., disappeared with randomly assigned partners). Together, both within and across-brain neural correlates of eye-to-eye contact included components of previously established productive and receptive language systems. These findings reveal a left frontal, temporal, and parietal long-range network that mediates neural responses during eye-to-eye contact between dyads, and advance insight into elemental mechanisms of social and interpersonal interactions.

Just one look: Direct gaze briefly disrupts visual working memory

Direct gaze is a salient social cue that affords rapid detection. A body of research suggests that direct gaze enhances performance on memory tasks (e.g., Hood, Macrae, Cole-Davies, & Dias, Developmental Science, 1, 67–71, 2003). Nonetheless, other studies highlight the disruptive effect direct gaze has on concurrent cognitive processes (e.g., Conty, Gimmig, Belletier, George, & Huguet, Cognition, 115(1), 133–139, 2010). This discrepancy raises questions about the effects direct gaze may have on concurrent memory tasks. We addressed this topic by employing a change detection paradigm, where participants retained information about the color of small sets of agents. Experiment 1 revealed that, despite the irrelevance of the agents’ eye gaze to the memory task at hand, participants were worse at detecting changes when the agents looked directly at them compared to when the agents looked away. Experiment 2 showed that the disruptive effect was relatively short-lived. Prolonged presentation of direct gaze led to recovery from the initial disruption, rather than a sustained disruption on change detection performance. The present study provides the first evidence that direct gaze impairs visual working memory with a rapidly-developing yet short-lived effect even when there is no need to attend to agents’ gaze.

Genuine eye contact elicits self-referential processing

The effect of eye contact on self-awareness was investigated with implicit measures based on the use of first-person singular pronouns in sentences. The measures were proposed to tap into self-referential processing, that is, information processing associated with self-awareness. In addition, participants filled in a questionnaire measuring explicit self-awareness. In Experiment 1, the stimulus was a video clip showing another person and, in Experiment 2, the stimulus was a live person. In both experiments, participants were divided into two groups and presented with the stimulus person either making eye contact or gazing downward, depending on the group assignment. During the task, the gaze stimulus was presented before each trial of the pronoun-selection task. Eye contact was found to increase the use of first-person pronouns, but only when participants were facing a real person, not when they were looking at a video of a person. No difference in self-reported self-awareness was found between the two gaze direction groups in either experiment. The results indicate that eye contact elicits self-referential processing, but the effect may be stronger, or possibly limited to, live interaction.

When we cannot speak: Eye contact disrupts resources available to cognitive control processes during verb generation

Although eye contact and verbal processing appear independent, people frequently avert their eyes from interlocutors during conversation. This suggests that there is interference between these processes. We hypothesized that such interference occurs because both processes share cognitive resources of a domain-general system and explored the influence of eye contact on simultaneous verb generation processes (i.e., retrieval and selection). In the present experiment, viewing a movie of faces with eyes directed toward the viewer delayed verbal generation more than a movie of faces with averted eyes; however, this effect was only present when both retrieval and selection demands were high. The results support the hypothesis that eye contact shares domain-general cognitive resource with verb generation. This further indicates that a full understanding of functional and dysfunctional communication must consider the interaction and interference of verbal and non-verbal channels.

Measuring the stare-in-the-crowd effect: a new paradigm to study social perception

Social perceptual ability plays a key role in successful social functioning. Social interactions demand a number of simultaneous skills, one of which is the detection of self-directed gaze. This study demonstrates how the ability to accurately detect self-directed gaze, called the stare-in-the-crowd effect, can be studied using a new eye-tracking paradigm. A set of images was developed to test this effect using a group of healthy undergraduate students. Eye movements and pupil size were tracked while they viewed these images. Participants also completed behavioral measures about themselves. Results show that self-directed gaze results in significantly more looking by participants. Behavioral predictors of gaze behaviors were not identified, likely given the health of the sample. However, correlations with variables are reported to explore in future research.

The effects of simulated vision impairments on the cone of gaze

Detecting the gaze direction of others is critical for many social interactions. We explored factors that may make the perception of mutual gaze more difficult, including the degradation of the stimulus and simulated vision impairment. To what extent do these factors affect the complex assessment of mutual gaze? Using an interactive virtual head whose eye direction could be manipulated by the subject, we conducted two experiments to assess the effects of simulated vision impairments on mutual gaze. Healthy subjects had to demarcate the center and the edges of the cone of gaze-that is, the range of gaze directions that are accepted for mutual gaze. When vision was impaired by adding a semitransparent white contrast reduction mask to the display (Exp. 1), judgments became more variable and more influenced by the head direction (indicative of a compensation strategy). When refractive blur was added (Exp. 1), the gaze cone shrank from 12.9° (no blur) to 11.3° (3-diopter lens), which cannot be explained by a low-level process but might reflect a tightening of the criterion for mutual gaze as a response to the increased uncertainty. However, the overall effects of the impairments were relatively modest. Elderly subjects (Exp. 2) produced more variability but did not differ qualitatively from the younger subjects. In the face of artificial vision impairments, compensation mechanisms and criterion changes allow us to perform better in mutual gaze perception than would be predicted by a simple extrapolation from the losses in basic visual acuity and contrast sensitivity.

Eye contact affects attention more than arousal as revealed by prospective time estimation

Eye contact can both increase arousal and engage attention. Because these two changes impact time estimation differently, we were able to use a prospective time estimation task to assess the relative changes in arousal and attention during eye contact. Pairs of participants made a 1-minute prospective time estimate while sitting side-by-side and performing three different gaze trials: looking at the wall away from their partner (baseline/away trials), looking at their partner's profile (profile trials), or making eye contact with their partner (eye contact trials). We found that participants produced significantly longer estimates when they were engaged in eye contact, more so than when they looked at another person's profile or baseline. As research has shown that people produce shorter estimates during arousing events and longer estimates when attention is captured, we attribute this difference to the attention-demanding process of interacting with another person, via mutual eye contact, over and above any changes in arousal.

What do home videos tell us about early motor and socio-communicative behaviours in children with autistic features during the second year of life--An exploratory study

BACKGROUND

Little is known about the first half year of life of individuals later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). There is even a complete lack of observations on the first 6 months of life of individuals with transient autistic behaviours who improved in their socio-communicative functions in the pre-school age.

AIM

To compare early development of individuals with transient autistic behaviours and those later diagnosed with ASD.

STUDY DESIGN

Exploratory study; retrospective home video analysis.

SUBJECTS

18 males, videoed between birth and the age of 6 months (ten individuals later diagnosed with ASD; eight individuals who lost their autistic behaviours after the age of 3 and achieved age-adequate communicative abilities, albeit often accompanied by tics and attention deficit).

METHOD

The detailed video analysis focused on general movements (GMs), the concurrent motor repertoire, eye contact, responsive smiling, and pre-speech vocalisations.

RESULTS

Abnormal GMs were observed more frequently in infants later diagnosed with ASD, whereas all but one infant with transient autistic behaviours had normal GMs (p<0.05). Eye contact and responsive smiling were inconspicuous for all individuals. Cooing was not observable in six individuals across both groups.

CONCLUSIONS

GMs might be one of the markers which could assist the earlier identification of ASD. We recommend implementing the GM assessment in prospective studies on ASD.

Eye contact elicits bodily self-awareness in human adults

Eye contact is a typical human behaviour known to impact concurrent or subsequent cognitive processing. In particular, it has been suggested that eye contact induces self-awareness, though this has never been formally proven. Here, we show that the perception of a face with a direct gaze (that establishes eye contact), as compared to either a face with averted gaze or a mere fixation cross, led adult participants to rate more accurately the intensity of their physiological reactions induced by emotional pictures. Our data support the view that bodily self-awareness becomes more acute when one is subjected to another's gaze. Importantly, this effect was not related to a particular arousal state induced by eye contact perception. Rejecting the arousal hypothesis, we suggest that eye contact elicits a self-awareness process by enhancing self-focused attention in humans. We further discuss the implications of this proposal.

Physician eye contact and elder patient perceptions of understanding and adherence

OBJECTIVE

To Examine physician eye contact (EC), patient understanding and adherence.

METHODS

Secondary analysis of National Institute of Aging videotapes (N=52) of physician-elder patients in two visit types: (1) routine (n=20); (2) anxiety-provoking (n=32) was conducted. Self-reports of understanding and adherence were used. History-taking segments were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed for relationships between EC, understanding and adherence.

RESULTS

Qualitative analysis showed: (1) two salient EC elements--frequency, type (brief or sustained)--and verbal synchronicity were commonly invoked; (2) conjoint unfolding of three communication elements--"looking, listening and talking"--may be salient for patient outcomes; (3) despite differing EC patterns in routine and anxiety provoking visits, statistical analyses showed patient understanding and adherence ratings were similar in the sample population comprising two visit types; no significant correlations between EC elements and understanding and adherence were found.

CONCLUSIONS

Salience of EC for patient-centered communication is shown in prior research. Present findings broaden the significance of EC by including verbal synchronicity. Methodological limitations may account for no significant correlations between EC and patient outcomes.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Using suggested framework for operationalizing EC elements, including verbally synchronous communication, may facilitate patient-centeredness and have positive implications for patient understanding and adherence.

Neural activity in the posterior superior temporal region during eye contact perception correlates with autistic traits

The present study investigated the relationship between neural activity associated with gaze processing and autistic traits in typically developed subjects using magnetoencephalography. Autistic traits in 24 typically developed college students with normal intelligence were assessed using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). The Minimum Current Estimates method was applied to estimate the cortical sources of magnetic responses to gaze stimuli. These stimuli consisted of apparent motion of the eyes, displaying direct or averted gaze motion. Results revealed gaze-related brain activations in the 150-250 ms time window in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), and in the 150-450 ms time window in medial prefrontal regions. In addition, the mean amplitude in the 150-250 ms time window in the right pSTS region was modulated by gaze direction, and its activity in response to direct gaze stimuli correlated with AQ score. pSTS activation in response to direct gaze is thought to be related to higher-order social processes. Thus, these results suggest that brain activity linking eye contact and social signals is associated with autistic traits in a typical population.

Digit ratios (2D:4D), postnatal testosterone and eye contact in toddlers

Previous research has shown an association between eye contact and prenatal testosterone measured in amniocenteses samples. The purpose of this study was to test the association between eye contact and prenatal androgen action measured via second to fourth digit ratios (2D:4D ratios), and to explore the relationship between eye contact and postnatal testosterone levels. Participants included 72 children, between the ages of 18 and 24 months, and their parents. Salivary testosterone levels were obtained when children were 3-months old. At 18-months, 2D:4D ratios were measured and parent-child dyads participated in an 8-min play session that was recorded and later coded for duration and frequency of eye contact. Results indicated that larger 2D:4D ratios (indicative of lower androgen levels) significantly predicted longer duration and more frequency of eye contact, while postnatal testosterone levels were unrelated to eye contact. These novel findings suggest prenatal androgens may influence the emergence of social development.