Faces in scenes attract rapid saccades

Abstract

During natural vision, the human visual system has to process upcoming eye movements in parallel to currently fixated stimuli. Saccades targeting isolated faces are known to have lower latency and higher velocity, but it is unclear how this generalizes to the natural cycle of saccades and fixations during free-viewing of complex scenes. To which degree can the visual system process high-level features of extrafoveal stimuli when they are embedded in visual clutter and compete with concurrent foveal input? Here, we investigated how free-viewing dynamics vary as a function of an upcoming fixation target while controlling for various low-level factors. We found strong evidence that face- versus inanimate object–directed saccades are preceded by shorter fixations and have higher peak velocity. Interestingly, the boundary conditions for these two effects are dissociated. The effect on fixation duration was limited to face saccades, which were small and followed the trajectory of the preceding one, early in a trial. This is reminiscent of a recently proposed model of perisaccadic retinotopic shifts of attention. The effect on saccadic velocity, however, extended to very large saccades and increased with trial duration. These findings suggest that multiple, independent mechanisms interact to process high-level features of extrafoveal targets and modulate the dynamics of natural vision.

Individual differences in face salience and rapid face saccades

“…Recent research from our lab found that saccades targeting faces during free-viewing are preceded by shorter fixation durations compared to saccades directed toward inanimate objects (Borovska & de Haas, 2023). This suggests the latency advantage for face-directed saccades generalizes between the SRT and natural free-viewing and at least some mechanisms of face salience may be shared between the SRT and free-viewing.…”

“…We recently found that fixations preceding saccades towards faces in complex natural scenes have a shorter duration than fixations preceding saccades towards inanimate objects (Borovska & de Haas, 2023). This suggests that the mechanisms mediating lower saccadic reaction times in the Saccadic Choice Paradigm may be at play during free viewing and potentially contribute to face salience in complex scenes.…”

Individual differences in face salience and rapid face saccades

“…We recently found that fixations preceding saccades toward faces in complex natural scenes have a shorter duration than fixations preceding saccades toward inanimate objects ( Borovska & de Haas, 2023 ). This finding suggests that the mechanisms mediating lower SRTs in the saccadic choice paradigm may be at play during free viewing and potentially contribute to face salience in complex scenes.…”

“…Recent research from our lab found that saccades targeting faces during free viewing are preceded by shorter fixation durations compared with saccades directed toward inanimate objects ( Borovska & de Haas, 2023 ). This finding suggests the latency advantage for face-directed saccades generalizes between the SRT and natural free viewing, and that at least some mechanisms of face salience may be shared between the SRT and free viewing.…”