Neural bases of eye and gaze processing: the core of social cognition.

By Roxane J. Itier, Magali Batty. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 2009

618 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Eyes and gaze are very important stimuli for human social interactions. Recent studies suggest that impairments in recognizing face identity, facial emotions or in inferring attention and intentions of others could be linked to difficulties in extracting the relevant information from the eye region including gaze direction. In this review, we address the central role of eyes and gaze in social cognition. We start with behavioral data demonstrating the importance of the eye region and the impact of gaze on the most significant aspects of face processing. We review neuropsychological cases and data from various imaging techniques such as fMRI/PET and ERP/MEG, in an attempt to best describe the spatio-temporal networks underlying these processes. The existence of a neuronal eye detector mechanism is discussed as well as the links between eye gaze and social cognition impairments in autism. We suggest impairments in processing eyes and gaze may represent a core deficiency in several other brain pathologies and may be central to abnormal social cognition.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e59587d5a5e8dd6d66912bd06a12a2665fe8fd07

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In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Social Psychology

David J. Lewkowicz

Citations in the corpus

Eye-Catching Odors: Olfaction Elicits Sustained Gazing to Faces and Eyes in 4-Month-Old Infants (2013, background): “Accordingly, when exposed to their mother’s body odor, it is reasonable to assume that infants increase their attempts to interact with the person in the photograph, especially because by 4 month of age infants have learned that gazing into people’s eyes will elicit their responsiveness [78].”