Dynamic brain responses to eye gaze perception between directly facing subjects

Abstract

Here we used neuromagnetic recording (magnetoencephalography: MEG) to measure brain responses while the observer perceives changes in eye gaze, namely (a) the eye-contact and (b) the averting conditions, of the directly facing person. The MEG signals were analyzed in the time-frequency domain to evaluate event-related changes in the spontaneous brain activities induced by the onset of eye movements. Significant increase in the gamma-band power was observed in the eye-contact condition compared to the averting condition in the bilateral superior-temporal and frontal areas. Frequency-domain Granger-Geweke causality was used to test if there were causal connectivity between the areas where significant changes in gamma-band power were observed. The preliminary results indicate that the connectivity between (a) the bilateral frontal areas, and (b) the right frontal and parietal areas might be crucial for the perception of eye gaze of the directly facing person.