An eye tracking system for monitoring face scanning patterns reveals the enhancing effect of oxytocin on eye contact in common marmosets

Kotani, Manato; Shimono, Kazumi; Yoneyama, Toshihiro; Nakako, Tomokazu; Matsumoto, Kenji; Ogi, Yuji; Konoike, Naho; Nakamura, Katsuki; Ikeda, Kazuhito

doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.05.009

Cited by 29 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…More precise methods involve manually coding eye gaze from video footage (e.g., [ 26 , 67 , 68 ]) and automated eye-tracking (see References [ 37 , 69 , 70 ]; human studies reviewed by References [ 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 ]). The latter is fast, objective, and accurate, but also expensive and needs modifying for new species (e.g., marmosets [ 75 ], Callithrix jacchus , peafowl [ 76 ], Pavo cristatus , and archerfish [ 77 ], Toxotes chatareus ). Although impractical outside controlled conditions, eye-trackers have been successfully mounted to freely-moving ring-tailed lemurs [ 78 , 79 ] ( Lemur catta ).…”

Section: Literature Review: Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Affect-Driven Attention Biases as Animal Welfare Indicators: Review and Methods

Crump

Arnott

Bethell

2018

Animals

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Simple SummaryGood animal welfare requires minimizing suffering and promoting positive experiences. To achieve this, we need reliable indicators of animals’ psychological states. In humans, different moods and emotions (“affects”) are associated with changes in visual attention (“attention bias”). We review studies investigating whether attention biases are also indicators of affect in animals. Although research is limited, evidence for affect-driven attention biases has been found in several species, especially primates and livestock. These studies are discussed in relation to tasks developed for measuring attention in humans. We identify additional findings from human psychology that might be applied to animals, particularly species not studied before, and conclude that affect-driven attention bias is a promising welfare indicator. However, it may be more useful for studying responses to specific stimuli, rather than general wellbeing. With further study, we hope these findings contribute to fulfilling society’s ethical obligations towards animals.AbstractAttention bias describes the differential allocation of attention towards one stimulus compared to others. In humans, this bias can be mediated by the observer’s affective state and is implicated in the onset and maintenance of affective disorders such as anxiety. Affect-driven attention biases (ADABs) have also been identified in a few other species. Here, we review the literature on ADABs in animals and discuss their utility as welfare indicators. Despite a limited research effort, several studies have found that negative affective states modulate attention to negative (i.e., threatening) cues. ADABs influenced by positive-valence states have also been documented in animals. We discuss methods for measuring ADAB and conclude that looking time, dot-probe, and emotional spatial cueing paradigms are particularly promising. Research is needed to test them with a wider range of species, investigate attentional scope as an indicator of affect, and explore the possible causative role of attention biases in determining animal wellbeing. Finally, we argue that ADABs might not be best-utilized as indicators of general valence, but instead to reveal specific emotions, motivations, aversions, and preferences. Paying attention to the human literature could facilitate these advances.

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Section: Literature Review: Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Affect-Driven Attention Biases as Animal Welfare Indicators: Review and Methods

Crump

Arnott

Bethell

2018

Animals

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“…Since ASDs are characterized by gaze avoidance, it is particularly interesting that marmosets are able to use a variety of facial expressions for communication (Kemp and Kaplan, 2013 ) and to gain information by geometrical gaze following, even from human experimenters (Burkart and Heschl, 2006 ). Analyzing the face scanning patterns performed by marmosets, Kotani et al ( 2017 ) showed that these primates primarily view the eye region during contact and that this behavior can be employed to evaluate the influence of drugs.…”

Section: From Mice To Menmentioning

confidence: 99%

Of Men and Mice: Modeling the Fragile X Syndrome

Dahlhaus

2018

Front. Mol. Neurosci.

109

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The Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is one of the most common forms of inherited intellectual disability in all human societies. Caused by the transcriptional silencing of a single gene, the fragile x mental retardation gene FMR1, FXS is characterized by a variety of symptoms, which range from mental disabilities to autism and epilepsy. More than 20 years ago, a first animal model was described, the Fmr1 knock-out mouse. Several other models have been developed since then, including conditional knock-out mice, knock-out rats, a zebrafish and a drosophila model. Using these model systems, various targets for potential pharmaceutical treatments have been identified and many treatments have been shown to be efficient in preclinical studies. However, all attempts to turn these findings into a therapy for patients have failed thus far. In this review, I will discuss underlying difficulties and address potential alternatives for our future research.

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“…In rhesus monkeys, OXT increased the number of fixations on the eyes relative to those on the mouth region when viewing faces of conspecifics, irrespective of whether neutral or threat expressions were displayed 21 . Similarly, in marmosets OXT also increased gaze time to the eyes relative to other face regions, and this effect could be prevented using an OXT receptor antagonist 22 . Importantly, OXT administration has also been reported to increase viewing of the eye region during viewing of neutral expression faces in autistic individuals required to make gender or gaze-direction decisions (fixation duration) 23 and also during real-time social interactions in natural settings in both healthy control and autistic individuals (number of fixations per second) 24 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Oxytocin biases eye-gaze to dynamic and static social images and the eyes of fearful faces: associations with trait autism

Kou

Zhao

et al. 2020

Transl Psychiatry

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A key functional effect of intranasal oxytocin with potential therapeutic relevance for autism-spectrum disorder is its reported facilitation of attention towards social stimuli, notably the eye region of faces. In the current randomized placebo-controlled within-subject experiment on 40 healthy males, we investigated the robustness of this facilitation of attention by intranasal oxytocin (24IU) towards social cues. Eye-tracking measures of preference for dynamic and static social vs. non-social stimuli were taken in four different paradigms where autistic individuals tend to exhibit reduced interest in social stimuli. Additionally, we investigated whether oxytocin increases attention towards the eyes relative to other salient face regions in an emotional face paradigm. Results showed that the time spent viewing both dynamic and static social vs. non-social stimuli was negatively associated with trait autism and significantly increased following intranasal oxytocin. For face stimuli, oxytocin primarily increased gaze towards the eyes of fearful expression faces but not for other face emotions. Overall, our findings demonstrate that oxytocin significantly shifts gaze preference towards social vs. non-social stimuli and to the eyes of fearful faces. Importantly, oxytocin appears generally to shift attention more towards salient social stimuli of particular relevance in the context of autism providing further support for its potential therapeutic use in autism-spectrum disorder.

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An eye tracking system for monitoring face scanning patterns reveals the enhancing effect of oxytocin on eye contact in common marmosets

Cited by 29 publications

References 46 publications

Affect-Driven Attention Biases as Animal Welfare Indicators: Review and Methods

Affect-Driven Attention Biases as Animal Welfare Indicators: Review and Methods

Of Men and Mice: Modeling the Fragile X Syndrome

Oxytocin biases eye-gaze to dynamic and static social images and the eyes of fearful faces: associations with trait autism

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