The observer observed: Frontal EEG asymmetry and autonomic responses differentiate between another person's direct and averted gaze when the face is seen live

Abstract

Recently, we showed that another person's gaze direction influenced the perceiver's frontal EEG asymmetry and autonomic arousal in response to freely viewed real faces, but not in response to face pictures. However, the lack of a task during the viewing may have resulted in less attention allocation to face pictures vs. live faces. In the present study, the participants performed two online tasks while viewing the faces presented live through an electronic shutter and as pictures on a computer screen. The results replicated those from our previous experiment showing that direct gaze elicited greater relative left-sided frontal EEG asymmetry and autonomic arousal than averted gaze but, again, only in the live condition. However, the results also showed that two live stimulus faces (male and female) elicited differential EEG asymmetry responses in our participants (all females), and the effects of gaze direction were observed only for the (live) female faces. The results suggest that the discriminative responses to live faces vs. pictures are likely to reflect the participants' enhanced mental-state attributions and self-awareness when looking at and being looked by live faces. Thus, the motivation-and affect-related psychophysiological responses to gaze direction are most discriminative in the presence of another person, regardless of whether the face/gaze is actively monitored or not.

Learning under your gaze: the mediating role of affective arousal between perceived direct gaze and memory performance

“…As far as we know, the only previous study showing that females might not respond to direct gaze as strongly as males while performing a memory task was the study by Otteson and Otteson (1980) with primary school children. In previous studies investigating the effect of direct gaze on arousal, both females and males have been found to respond to direct gaze with enhanced arousal responses (Nichols & Champness, 1971;Helminen et al, 2011;Hietanen et al, 2008;Myllyneva & Hietanen, 2015;Pönkänen et al, 2011). Thus, we are cautious in drawing any conclusions about this result.…”

“…However, our recent studies (Hietanen, Leppänen, Peltola, Linna-aho, & Ruuhiala, 2008;Myllyneva & Hietanen, 2015;Pönkänen, Peltola, & Hietanen, 2011) have indicated that the effect of eye contact on arousal is not solely a result of bottom-up visual processing of self-directed eyes, but arousal responses are strongly modulated by top-down cognitive processes. According to the studies by Hietanen et al (2008) and Pönkänen et al (2011), the arousing effect of direct gaze was evident in a situation where the other person was met face-to-face, but not when seeing a picture of the person's face on a computer monitor. The authors suggested that this might be related to awareness of being seen by another person.…”

Affective Eye Contact: An Integrative Review

“…Several studies have reported that sympathetic skin conductance responses (SCRs)—a robust indicator of affective arousal (Critchley, 2002)—are greater in conditions with another individual’s direct gaze rather than averted gaze or closed eyes (e.g., Nichols and Champness, 1971; Hietanen et al, 2008; Helminen et al, 2011; Pönkänen et al, 2011b; Myllyneva and Hietanen, 2015). Pupil dilation, another index of physiological arousal, has also been shown to be larger in response to direct- versus averted-gaze stimuli (Porter et al, 2006).…”

Eye contact reveals a relationship between Neuroticism and anterior EEG asymmetry

“…These signals have been shown to have distinct effects on the person receiving them. Experiencing direct gaze from a social partner, signaling interest and approach tendencies, can elicit approach-related left-sided asymmetry in anterior cortical activity while averted gaze, indicating lack of interest or avoidance, has been related to weaker left-sided or stronger right-sided asymmetry in cortical activity (Hietanen et al, 2008;Pönkänen et al, 2011). There is also evidence that Neuroticism or similar constructs are related to differences in gaze behavior and affective evaluations of gaze direction.…”

“…Taken together, these findings suggest that looking at another person with direct gaze should reveal Neuroticism-related differences in anterior EEG asymmetry. Note that observing such effects may require participants to look at another person presented "live" rather than pictures of faces presented on a computer screen (Hietanen et al, 2008;Pönkänen et al, 2011). The live condition adds authenticity as participants are aware of being looked at and perceive the potential for interaction with the stimulus person.…”