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Early Left Parietal Activity Elicited by Direct Gaze: A High-Density EEG Study

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  • Nicolas Burra
  • Dirk Kerzel
  • Nathalie George

Abstract

Gaze is one of the most important cues for human communication and social interaction. In particular, gaze contact is the most primary form of social contact and it is thought to capture attention. A very early-differentiated brain response to direct versus averted gaze has been hypothesized. Here, we used high-density electroencephalography to test this hypothesis. Topographical analysis allowed us to uncover a very early topographic modulation (40–80 ms) of event-related responses to faces with direct as compared to averted gaze. This modulation was obtained only in the condition where intact broadband faces–as opposed to high-pass or low-pas filtered faces–were presented. Source estimation indicated that this early modulation involved the posterior parietal region, encompassing the left precuneus and inferior parietal lobule. This supports the idea that it reflected an early orienting response to direct versus averted gaze. Accordingly, in a follow-up behavioural experiment, we found faster response times to the direct gaze than to the averted gaze broadband faces. In addition, classical evoked potential analysis showed that the N170 peak amplitude was larger for averted gaze than for direct gaze. Taken together, these results suggest that direct gaze may be detected at a very early processing stage, involving a parallel route to the ventral occipito-temporal route of face perceptual analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolas Burra & Dirk Kerzel & Nathalie George, 2016. "Early Left Parietal Activity Elicited by Direct Gaze: A High-Density EEG Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(11), pages 1-23, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0166430
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166430
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Yasuko Sugase & Shigeru Yamane & Shoogo Ueno & Kenji Kawano, 1999. "Global and fine information coded by single neurons in the temporal visual cortex," Nature, Nature, vol. 400(6747), pages 869-873, August.
    2. Hiromi Kobayashi & Shiro Kohshima, 1997. "Unique morphology of the human eye," Nature, Nature, vol. 387(6635), pages 767-768, June.
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    1. Nur Syahirah Roslan & Lila Iznita Izhar & Ibrahima Faye & Hafeez Ullah Amin & Mohamad Naufal Mohamad Saad & Subarna Sivapalan & Samsul Ariffin Abdul Karim & Mohammad Abdul Rahman, 2019. "Neural correlates of eye contact in face-to-face verbal interaction: An EEG-based study of the extraversion personality trait," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(7), pages 1-15, July.

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