MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences UnitCBSU bibliography search
To request a reprint of a CBSU publication, please
click here to send us an email (reprints may not be available for all publications)
I thought you were looking at me: Direction-specific aftereffects in gaze perception
Authors:
JENKINS, R., BEAVER, J.D. & CALDER, A.J.
Reference:
Psychological Science, 17(6), 506-513
Year of publication:
2006
CBU number:
6160
Abstract:
Gaze direction is an important social signal in humans and other primates. Here we used an adaptation paradigm to investigate the functional organization of gaze perception in humans. Adaptation to consistent leftward vs. rightward gaze produced a powerful illusion that virtually eliminated observersí perception of gaze in the adapted direction; gaze to the adapted side was seen as pointing straight ahead, though perception of gaze to the opposite side was unimpaired. This striking dissociation held even when retinotopic mapping between adaptation and test stimuli was disrupted by changes in size or head orientation, suggesting that our findings do not reflect adaptation of low-level visual properties. Moreover, adaptation to averted gaze did not affect judgments of line bisection, illustrating that our findings do not reflect a general spatial bias. Our findings provide human evidence for distinct populations of neurons that are selectively responsive to particular directions of seen gaze.
