Abstract
AbstractFaces provide a platform for non-verbal communication through emotional expression and eye gaze. Fearful facial expressions are salient indicators of potential threat within the environment, which automatically capture observers’ attention. However, the degree to which fearful facial expressions facilitate attention to others’ gaze is unresolved. Given that fearful gaze indicates the location of potential threat, it was hypothesized that fearful gaze facilitates location processing. To test this hypothesis, a gaze cueing study with fearful and neutral faces assessing target localization was conducted. The task consisted of leftward, rightward, and forward/straight gaze trials. The inclusion of forward gaze trials allowed for the isolation of orienting and disengagement components of gaze-directed attention. The results suggest that both neutral and fearful gaze modulates attention through orienting and disengagement components. Fearful gaze, however, resulted in quicker orienting than neutral gaze...
Highlights
Faces are important for non-verbal communication within one’s social group
The results indicated a greater gaze cueing effect for fearful faces, which was attributed to faster responses on valid trials for fearful compared to neutral faces
There was a larger difference in reaction time between valid and forward gaze trials for fearful compared to neutral faces—suggesting that the enhanced gaze cueing of spatial location for fearful facial expressions is driven by facilitated orienting
Summary
There is a strong preference for face relevant stimuli and in particular eye contact (Farroni, Csibra, Simion, & Johnson, 2002; Farroni et al, 2005). The eye region of a face plays an important role in the expression of emotion (Darwin, 1872), and—through the direction of gaze—signals the location ABOUT THE AUTHOR. The CABIN lab studies how social and/or affective stimuli such as facial expressions influence behavior and the neural circuitry underlying this influence on behavior. The results from this paper—suggesting that we preferentially and automatically direct our attention to the location of others’ fearful gaze—builds upon the broader goals of the lab, which have recently focused on the allocation of attention to fearful facial expressions and in particular the eye region of fearful faces. The lab is currently researching the role of emotional expression in the presence of multiple gaze cues
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