Unconscious processing of direct gaze: Evidence from an ERP study

Yokoyama, Takemasa; Noguchi, Yasuki; Kita, Sotaro

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.04.002

Cited by 57 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The FFA, STS, IPS, and amygdala, brain regions known to be involved in gaze processing, showed substantially reduced responses when participants reported to be unaware of the stimuli, consistent with previous findings (for review, see Sterzer et al, 2014). Interestingly, greater neural responses to direct versus averted gaze were observed when participants indicated awareness of the stimuli, whereas responses to unaware direct gaze faces were smaller.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…To assess the strength of the evidence for the null hypothesis, as a nonsignificant t test result cannot provide unequivocal evidence in favor of the null hypothesis, we also performed a Bayes analysis (Dienes, 2011;Sterzer et al, 2014). This gives the likelihood of the data given the null hypothesis and the likelihood of the data given the alternative hypothesis and their quotient, the Bayes factor, as an output.…”

Section: Analysis Of Eye Tracking Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our analyses focused on brain regions that are known to be critically involved in the processing of clearly visible eye gaze, namely the FFA (George et al, 2001), amygdala (Kawashima et al, 1999;Straube et al, 2010;Burra et al, 2013;Sauer et al, 2014), STS (Engell and Haxby, 2007;Materna et al, 2008), andIPS (Hoffman andHaxby, 2000). We identified the most face-responsive voxel within each ROI for each participant individually.…”

Section: Analysis Of Behavioral Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gaze Direction Modulates the Relation between Neural Responses to Faces and Visual Awareness

et al. 2015

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Gaze direction and especially direct gaze is a powerful nonverbal cue that plays an important role in social interactions. Here we studied the neural mechanisms underlying the privileged access of direct gaze to visual awareness. We performed functional magnetic resonance imaging in healthy human volunteers who were exposed to faces with direct or averted gaze under continuous flash suppression, thereby manipulating their awareness of the faces. A gaze processing network comprising fusiform face area (FFA), superior temporal sulcus, amygdala, and intraparietal sulcus showed overall reduced neural responses when participants reported to be unaware of the faces. Interestingly, direct gaze elicited greater responses than averted gaze when participants were aware of the faces, but smaller responses when they were unaware. Additional between-subject correlation and single-trial analyses indicated that this pattern of results was due to a modulation of the relationship between neural responses and awareness by gaze direction: with increasing neural activation in the FFA, direct-gaze faces entered awareness more readily than averted-gaze faces. These findings suggest that for direct gaze, lower levels of neural activity are sufficient to give rise to awareness than for averted gaze, thus providing a neural basis for privileged access of direct gaze to awareness.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Analysis Of Eye Tracking Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Analysis Of Behavioral Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gaze Direction Modulates the Relation between Neural Responses to Faces and Visual Awareness

et al. 2015

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“…In contrast, a later signal along the superior temporal sulcus was specific for fearful expressions. Further support for the notion that changeable facial features of particular social relevance might be processed without awareness along specialized neural pathways comes from a recent EEG study that found larger negative deflections at parietofrontal electrodes to suppressed faces with direct gaze compared to suppressed faces with averted gaze (Yokoyama et al, 2013). Although still exploratory, this finding is in line with behavioral evidence of unconscious processing of eye gaze under interocular suppression (Stein et al, 2011b, 2012; Xu et al, 2011; Chen and Yeh, 2012).…”

Section: The Fate Of Suppressed Visual Information Beyond Early Visuamentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural processing of visual information under interocular suppression: a critical review

et al. 2014

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When dissimilar stimuli are presented to the two eyes, only one stimulus dominates at a time while the other stimulus is invisible due to interocular suppression. When both stimuli are equally potent in competing for awareness, perception alternates spontaneously between the two stimuli, a phenomenon called binocular rivalry. However, when one stimulus is much stronger, e.g., due to higher contrast, the weaker stimulus can be suppressed for prolonged periods of time. A technique that has recently become very popular for the investigation of unconscious visual processing is continuous flash suppression (CFS): High-contrast dynamic patterns shown to one eye can render a low-contrast stimulus shown to the other eye invisible for up to minutes. Studies using CFS have produced new insights but also controversies regarding the types of visual information that can be processed unconsciously as well as the neural sites and the relevance of such unconscious processing. Here, we review the current state of knowledge in regard to neural processing of interocularly suppressed information. Focusing on recent neuroimaging findings, we discuss whether and to what degree such suppressed visual information is processed at early and more advanced levels of the visual processing hierarchy. We review controversial findings related to the influence of attention on early visual processing under interocular suppression, the putative differential roles of dorsal and ventral areas in unconscious object processing, and evidence suggesting privileged unconscious processing of emotional and other socially relevant information. On a more general note, we discuss methodological and conceptual issues, from practical issues of how unawareness of a stimulus is assessed to the overarching question of what constitutes an adequate operational definition of unawareness. Finally, we propose approaches for future research to resolve current controversies in this exciting research area.

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“…One visual search study reported better discrimination of direct than averted gaze looking characters situated in the visual periphery (Palanica & Itier, 2011). Other studies using change detection (e.g., Yokoyama et al, 2011) and interocular suppression (e.g., Stein et al, 2011;Yokoyama et al, 2013) also support the view of a preferential processing of direct gaze in faces presented covertly. However, these studies did not manipulate the eccentricity at which those faces were presented or the direction of the face.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Effects of peripheral eccentricity and head orientation on gaze discrimination

Palanica

Itier

2014

Visual Cognition

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Visual search tasks support a special role for direct gaze in human cognition, while classic gaze judgment tasks suggest the congruency between head orientation and gaze direction plays a central role in gaze perception. Moreover, whether gaze direction can be accurately discriminated in the periphery using covert attention is unknown. In the present study, individual faces in frontal and in deviated head orientations with a direct or an averted gaze were flashed for 150 ms across the visual field; participants focused on a centred fixation while judging the gaze direction. Gaze discrimination speed and accuracy varied with head orientation and eccentricity. The limit of accurate gaze discrimination was less than ±6° eccentricity. Response times suggested a processing facilitation for direct gaze in fovea, irrespective of head orientation, however, by ±3° eccentricity, head orientation started biasing gaze judgments, and this bias increased with eccentricity. Results also suggested a special processing of frontal heads with direct gaze in central vision, rather than a general congruency effect between eye and head cues. Thus, while both head and eye cues contribute to gaze discrimination, their role differs with eccentricity.

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Unconscious processing of direct gaze: Evidence from an ERP study

Cited by 57 publications

References 37 publications

Gaze Direction Modulates the Relation between Neural Responses to Faces and Visual Awareness

Gaze Direction Modulates the Relation between Neural Responses to Faces and Visual Awareness

Neural processing of visual information under interocular suppression: a critical review

Effects of peripheral eccentricity and head orientation on gaze discrimination

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