%A Shepherd,Stephen %D 2010 %J Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience %C %F %G English %K Attention,joint attention,Orienting,shared attention,social attention,theory-of-mind %Q %R 10.3389/fnint.2010.00005 %W %L %M %P %7 %8 2010-March-19 %9 Review %+ Dr Stephen Shepherd,Princeton University,Neuroscience Institute,Princeton, NJ,United States,stephen.v.shepherd@gmail.com %# %! Following gaze %* %< %T Following Gaze: Gaze-Following Behavior as a Window into Social Cognition %U https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnint.2010.00005 %V 4 %0 JOURNAL ARTICLE %@ 1662-5145 %X In general, individuals look where they attend and next intend to act. Many animals, including our own species, use observed gaze as a deictic (“pointing”) cue to guide behavior. Among humans, these responses are reflexive and pervasive: they arise within a fraction of a second, act independently of task relevance, and appear to undergird our initial development of language and theory of mind. Human and nonhuman animals appear to share basic gaze-following behaviors, suggesting the foundations of human social cognition may also be present in nonhuman brains.