Neural Activity To Viewed Dynamic Gaze Is Affected By Social Decision
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1
Indiana University, Psychological and Brain Sciences, United States
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2
CNRS-Aix Marseille Université, Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, France
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3
3CNRS, UMR 7225, CRICM, France
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4
3CNRS, UMR 7225, CRICM, France
Puce et al. (2000) reported larger N170s to gaze aversion in a passive viewing task, while Conty et al. (2007) described larger N170s to gaze change toward the subject in a social judgment task. We aimed to reconcile these studies by recording ERPs in two tasks in the same subjects. In a Social Task, subjects judged if a gaze transition moved Away or Toward them. In a Non-social Task, a gaze transition was judged as moving to the Left or Right.
Continuous 256 channel EEG was recorded from 22 healthy adults viewing dynamic gaze stimuli in 6 conditions:
(1) Direct to Extreme gaze [Dir-Ext]
(2) Extreme to Direct gaze [Ext-Dir]
(3) Intermediate to Extreme [Int-Ext]
(4) Intermediate to Direct gaze [Int-Dir]
(5) Direct gaze to Intermediate [Dir-Int]
(6) Extreme to Intermediate [Ext-Int]
Conditions (1) and (2) were from Puce et al. (2000), whereas (3) and (4) were a subset from Conty et al. (2007). Conditions (5) and (6) were not used previously. N170 peak latencies and amplitudes were calculated from two occipitotemporal 9-electrode clusters. Repeated measures ANOVAs were run for behavior and N170 latency and amplitude.
Behavior: Subjects were faster in the non-social task, and more accurate for gaze aversions (non-social task). In the social task, faster RTs occurred for gaze transitions made toward subjects.
ERP findings: In the non-social task, N170s were significantly larger for gaze aversions relative to gaze changes toward subjects. In the social task, this difference disappeared in the right hemisphere.
The current study reconciled differences of two earlier studies. The brain's response to a gaze change depends on the decision being made. When not in a 'social' mode, the brain selectively responds (with a larger N170) to another's averted gaze. Operating in 'social' mode leads to larger N170s to gaze transitions toward the subject, suggesting that social context increases salience of direct gaze consistent with our behavioral data.
Keywords:
Gaze Direction,
social attention,
eyes,
ERPs,
N170
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Emotional and Social Processes
Citation:
Puce
A,
Latinus
M,
Love
S,
Rossi
A,
Parada
F,
Huang
L,
Conty
L,
James
K and
George
N
(2015). Neural Activity To Viewed Dynamic Gaze Is Affected By Social Decision.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00051
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Aina Puce, Indiana University, Psychological and Brain Sciences, Bloomington, United States, ainapuce@gmail.com