Sustained neural activity to gaze and emotion perception in dynamic social scenes

Ulloa, José Luis; Puce, Aina; Hugueville, Laurent; George, Nathalie

doi:10.1093/scan/nss141

Cited by 22 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…It is likely that the processing of gaze direction, head orientation, and gaze motion recruit different close-by areas in posterior occipito-temporo-parietal regions, which may differentially impact and sum up at the level of the scalp N170, depending on the stimulus and task at hand. Our result is in line with previous studies that used static faces under frontal view and found enhanced N170 for faces displaying averted as compared to direct gaze ([18, 19], see also [111]).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

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

2016

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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.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

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

2016

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“…Video clips have comprised realistic depictions of social interactions, digital animations of human‐like avatars, and point‐light displays and stick‐figure displays of human movements . Finally, whereas many stimuli portrayed target individuals from head/neck to toe, others showed only people's upper bodies, facial expressions, or hand movements …”

Section: People Watching: Toward a Neuroscientific Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

The neuroscience of people watching: how the human brain makes sense of other people's encounters

Quadflieg

Koldewyn

2017

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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Neuroscientific investigations interested in questions of person perception and impression formation have traditionally asked their participants to observe and evaluate isolated individuals. In recent years, however, there has been a surge of studies presenting third-party encounters between two (or more) individuals as stimuli. Owing to this subtle methodological change, the brain's capacity to understand other people's interactions and relationships from limited visual information--also known as people watching--has become a distinct topic of inquiry. Though initial evidence indicates that this capacity relies on several well-known networks of the social brain (including the person-perception network, the action-observation network, and the mentalizing network), a comprehensive framework of people watching must overcome three major challenges. First, it must develop a taxonomy of judgments that people habitually make when witnessing the encounters of others. Second, it must clarify which visual cues give rise to these encounter-based judgments. Third, it must elucidate how and why several brain networks work together to accomplish these judgments. To advance all three lines of research, we summarize what is currently known as well as what remains to be studied about the neuroscience of people watching.

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“…A prominent negativity at around 170–220 ms (N170) post-motion onset is seen in the posterior scalp to apparent motion of a natural face (Puce et al, 2000) or a line-drawn face (Puce et al, 2003). A corresponding magnetoencephalographic response, the M170, has also been described to the apparent motion of natural faces (Watanabe et al, 2001) or to facial avatars (Ulloa et al, 2012) Larger and earlier N170s occurred to gaze aversions relative to direct gaze movements in both natural faces and isolated eyes, and to mouth opening relative to mouth closure (Puce et al, 2000). Similar results have been demonstrated using images of line-drawn faces making mouth movements (Puce et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural correlates of apparent motion perception of impoverished facial stimuli: A comparison of ERP and ERSP activity

et al. 2014

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Our brains readily decode human movements, as shown by neural responses to face and body motion. N170 event-related potentials (ERPs) are earlier and larger to mouth opening movements relative to closing in both line-drawn and natural faces, and gaze aversions relative to direct gaze in natural faces (Puce and Perrett, 2003; Puce et al., 2000). Here we extended this work by recording both ERP and oscillatory EEG activity (event-related spectral perturbations, ERSPs) to line-drawn faces depicting eye and mouth movements (Eyes: Direct vs Away; Mouth: Closed vs Open) and non-face motion controls. Neural activity was measured in 2 occipitotemporal clusters of 9 electrodes, one in each hemisphere. Mouth opening generated larger N170s than mouth closing, replicating earlier work. Eye motion elicited robust N170s that did not differ between gaze conditions. Control condition differences were seen, and generated the largest N170. ERSP difference plots across conditions in the occipitotemporal electrode clusters (Eyes: Direct vs Away; Mouth: Closed vs Open) showed statistically significant differences in beta and gamma bands for gaze direction changes and mouth opening at similar post-stimulus times and frequencies. In contrast, control stimuli showed activity in the gamma band with a completely different time profile and hemispheric distribution to facial stimuli. ERSP plots were generated in two 9 electrode clusters centered on central sites, C3 and C4. In the left cluster for all stimulus conditions, broadband beta suppression persisted from about 250 ms post-motion onset. In the right cluster, beta suppression was seen for control conditions only. Statistically significant differences between conditions were confined between 4 – 15 Hz, unlike occipitotemporal sites where differences occurred at much higher frequencies (high beta/gamma). Our data indicate that N170 amplitude is sensitive to the amount of movement in the visual field, independent of stimulus type. In contrast, occipitotemporal beta and gamma activity differentiate between facial and non-facial motion. Context and stimulus configuration likely play a role in shaping neural responses, based on comparisons of the current data to previously reported studies. Broadband suppression of central beta activity, and significant low frequency differences were likely stimulus driven and not contingent on behavioral responses.

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Sustained neural activity to gaze and emotion perception in dynamic social scenes

Cited by 22 publications

References 49 publications

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

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

The neuroscience of people watching: how the human brain makes sense of other people's encounters

Neural correlates of apparent motion perception of impoverished facial stimuli: A comparison of ERP and ERSP activity

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