Quick, eyes! Isolated upper face regions but not artificial features elicit rapid saccades

Broda, Maximilian Davide; Haddad, Theresa; Haas, Benjamin de

doi:10.1167/jov.23.2.5

Cited by 4 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Especially the eye region has been suggested to play a role in rapid face detection. Most saccades land near the eyes (Kauffmann et al, 2021) and upper face regions elicit faster saccadic reaction times than lower and even whole faces (Broda et al, 2023). This is in line with recordings from face-selective cells in macaques showing that faces only containing an eye elicit rapid neural responses (Issa & DiCarlo, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Faces elicit faster and more accurate saccades than other types of objects (Crouzet et al, 2010), which may hinge on the eye region (Broda et al, 2023;Kauffmann et al, 2021). However, it is still unclear whether rapid saccades are face-specific, and if individual differences in the tendency to immediately fixate faces during free-viewing are related to reaction time advantage for faces in the Saccadic Choice Task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Minimum saccadic reaction times were identified as the earliest significant bin that was followed by at least four consecutive significant bins (cf. Broda et al, 2023;Kauffmann et al, 2021).…”

Section: Minimum Saccadic Reaction Timesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, including faces in salience models drastically improves their performance (Cerf et al, 2008), as is true for other salient semantic features such as text (Cerf et al, 2009;Xu et al, 2014). We previously used the SCT to explore saccadic reaction times towards inanimate objects associated with faces such as face masks or glasses but found no advantages when compared to cars (Broda et al, 2023). This could be the result of the insufficient salience of such objects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Individual differences in face salience and rapid face saccades

Broda,

Borovska,

de Haas

2024

Preprint

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Humans saccade to faces in their periphery faster than to other types of objects. Previous research has highlighted the potential importance of the upper face region in this, but it is still unclear whether this is driven by the eye region. Similarly, it is still unclear whether such rapid saccades are exclusive to faces or generalize to other semantically salient stimuli. Furthermore, it is unknown whether individuals differ in their face-specific saccadic reaction times and if so, whether such differences could be linked to differences in face fixations during free-viewing. To explore these open questions, we invited 77 participants to perform a saccadic choice task (SCT) in which we contrasted faces as well as other salient objects, particularly isolated face features and text, with cars. Additionally, participants freely viewed 700 images of complex natural scenes in a separate session which allowed us to determine the individual proportion of first fixations falling on faces. For the SCT, we found advantages for all categories of interest over cars. However, this effect was most pronounced for images of full faces. Full faces also elicited faster saccades compared to eyes, showing that isolated eye regions are not sufficient to elicit face-like responses. Additionally, we found consistent individual differences in saccadic reaction times towards faces that weakly correlated with face salience during free-viewing. Our results suggest a link between semantic salience and rapid detection but underscore the unique status of faces. Further research is needed to resolve the mechanisms underlying rapid face saccades.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Minimum Saccadic Reaction Timesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Individual differences in face salience and rapid face saccades

Broda,

Borovska,

de Haas

2024

Preprint

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“…In particular, amygdala HGBA encodes information about facial features such as the eyes (Guex et al, 2023). As eye movements are usually most prominent after 200 ms during face processing (Broda et al, 2023;Spiering & Dimigen, 2023)-which is slower than the effect onset in amygdala HGBA in the present study-amygdala HGBA might predispose gaze shifts toward relevant facial features rather than reflect them. The findings reported by Jha et al (2023) support this view: They demonstrated a predictive value of amygdala HGBA for saccades in response to faces.…”

Section: A Neutral Focus Enhances the Detection Of Emotion In The Amy...mentioning

confidence: 53%

Amygdala and cortical gamma‐band responses to emotional faces are modulated by attention to valence

Weidner,

Moratti,

Schindler

et al. 2024

Psychophysiology

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The amygdala might support an attentional bias for emotional faces. However, whether and how selective attention toward a specific valence modulates this bias is not fully understood. Likewise, it is unclear whether amygdala and cortical signals respond to emotion and attention in a similar way. We recorded gamma‐band activity (GBA, > 30 Hz) intracranially in the amygdalae of 11 patients with epilepsy and collected scalp recordings from 19 healthy participants. We presented angry, neutral, and happy faces randomly, and we denoted one valence as the target. Participants detected happy targets most quickly and accurately. In the amygdala, during attention to negative faces, low gamma‐band activity (LGBA, < 90 Hz) increased for angry compared with happy faces from 160 ms. From 220 ms onward, amygdala high gamma‐band activity (HGBA, > 90 Hz) was higher for angry and neutral faces than for happy ones. Monitoring neutral faces increased amygdala HGBA for emotions compared with neutral faces from 40 ms. Expressions were not differentiated in GBA while monitoring positive faces. On the scalp, only threat monitoring resulted in expression differentiation. Here, posterior LGBA was increased selectively for angry targets from 60 ms. The data show that GBA differentiation of emotional expressions is modulated by attention to valence: Top‐down‐controlled threat vigilance coordinates widespread GBA in favor of angry faces. Stimulus‐driven emotion differentiation in amygdala GBA occurs during a neutral attentional focus. These findings align with a multi‐pathway model of emotion processing and specify the role of GBA in this process.

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Faces in scenes attract rapid saccades

Borovska

Haas

2023

Journal of Vision

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During natural vision, the human visual system has to process upcoming eye movements in parallel to currently fixated stimuli. Saccades targeting isolated faces are known to have lower latency and higher velocity, but it is unclear how this generalizes to the natural cycle of saccades and fixations during free-viewing of complex scenes. To which degree can the visual system process high-level features of extrafoveal stimuli when they are embedded in visual clutter and compete with concurrent foveal input? Here, we investigated how free-viewing dynamics vary as a function of an upcoming fixation target while controlling for various low-level factors. We found strong evidence that face- versus inanimate object–directed saccades are preceded by shorter fixations and have higher peak velocity. Interestingly, the boundary conditions for these two effects are dissociated. The effect on fixation duration was limited to face saccades, which were small and followed the trajectory of the preceding one, early in a trial. This is reminiscent of a recently proposed model of perisaccadic retinotopic shifts of attention. The effect on saccadic velocity, however, extended to very large saccades and increased with trial duration. These findings suggest that multiple, independent mechanisms interact to process high-level features of extrafoveal targets and modulate the dynamics of natural vision.

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Quick, eyes! Isolated upper face regions but not artificial features elicit rapid saccades

Cited by 4 publications

References 49 publications

Individual differences in face salience and rapid face saccades

Individual differences in face salience and rapid face saccades

Amygdala and cortical gamma‐band responses to emotional faces are modulated by attention to valence

Faces in scenes attract rapid saccades

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