Modulation of the eyeblink and cardiac startle reflexes by genuine eye contact

Abstract

Is another person's direct gaze an inherently positive or negative stimulus? The present study employed the startle reflex methodology to investigate individuals' automatic reactions to another person's direct and averted gaze. In the study, participants' eyeblink startle and cardiac reflexes elicited by a high-intensity acoustic noise stimulus were measured in the context of viewing a live model's direct and downward gaze. Both the eyeblink electromyographic and electrocardiographic data revealed that the startle reflex was modulated by gaze direction. Direct gaze attenuated the eyeblink startle and cardiac reflexes to the acoustic probes compared to those elicited in the context of a downward gaze. These results indicate that the defense reflex is weaker when presented in the context of direct versus downward gaze, and thus suggest that another individual's direct gaze, compared to averted gaze, automatically elicits more positive affective responses in the viewer.

Your attention makes me smile: Direct gaze elicits affiliative facial expressions

“…To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show specifically the effect of another person's gaze direction on a perceiver's facial EMG responses. Considering that zygomatic responses have been associated with the occurrence of positive emotional reactions (Dimberg, 1990;Larsen et al, 2003;Tassinary & Cacioppo, 1992), the results can be interpreted to be compatible with previous studies employing implicit and explicit behavioral measures and reporting that direct gaze stimuli elicit more positive reactions than averted gaze or closed eyes stimuli (Chen et al, 2016;Chen, Helminen, et al, 2017;Chen, Peltola et al, 2017;Kuzmanovic et al, 2009;Lawson, 2015;Mason et al, 2005). As noted above, the zygomatic responses to another's direct vs. averted gaze were greater both when the participant was looking at the model and when the participant's own gaze was slightly turned away from the model.…”

“…Moreover, it is well-known that explicit responses reflect controlled and analytic processing and are often affected by motivational biases or other top-down influences (Evans, 2008;Hofmann, Gawronski, Gschwendner, Le, & Schmitt, 2005). In fact, like in the present study, in many of our own previous studies in which we have measured both implicit (e.g., frontal EEG asymmetry, automatic affective priming, and startle reflex modulation) and explicit affect-related responses it has a been a typical finding that implicit measures indicate more positive responses to direct gaze versus averted gaze or closed eyes, whereas explicit measures have indicated either no difference in valence ratings between direct and averted gaze (Chen, Peltola, et al, 2017) or even less positive responses to direct than averted gaze (Hietanen et al, 2008;. As we have suggested elsewhere, these seemingly discrepant findings may be explained by assuming that people's initial and automatic responses may be attenuated and suppressed when they start to evaluate their feelings to other people's gaze.…”

“…Two recent studies employing the affective priming paradigm indicated that more positive affective reactions were automatically activated by perception of direct gaze compared to perception of closed eyes (Chen, Helminen, & Hietanen, 2017;Chen, Peltola, Ranta, & Hietanen, 2016), and a study relying on the implicit association paradigm showed a robust preference for faces looking towards as compared to faces looking away (Lawson, 2015). Most recently, a study employing the startle reflex methodology reported that the magnitudes of participants' eyeblink startle and cardiac reflexes elicited by high-intensity noise stimuli were modulated by simultaneously presented gaze direction stimuli (Chen, Peltola, Dunn, Pajunen, & Hietanen, 2017). Direct gaze attenuated the eyeblink startle and cardiac reflexes compared to those elicited in the context of a downward gaze.…”

Affective Eye Contact: An Integrative Review

“…More recently, the effect of gaze direction on startle reflex modulation was investigated by presenting loud auditory stimuli while a live model’s direct- and downward-gaze stimuli were presented through a liquid crystal window (Chen et al, 2017b). In this study, both eyeblink startle and cardiac reflexes were measured.…”

Photic Sneeze Reflex: Another Variant of the Trigeminocardiac Reflex?

“…This hypothesis might explain why the TCR and its subgroups are better documented during surgery [76][77][78]. But it also opens the window to further (potential) risk factors [79][80][81], a better understanding of neuroanatomy [82,83] and might explain the influence of positive psychology on the course of different neurological diseases [84][85][86]. In such a context, the TCR also helps to understand the physiology of the nervous system better and to develop new models of it [87][88][89][90][91][92].…”