Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Jan 19;371(1686):20150080.
doi: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0080.

Gazing at me: the importance of social meaning in understanding direct-gaze cues

Antonia F de C Hamilton  1
Affiliations
Review

Gazing at me: the importance of social meaning in understanding direct-gaze cues

Antonia F de C Hamilton. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. .

Abstract

Direct gaze is an engaging and important social cue, but the meaning of direct gaze depends heavily on the surrounding context. This paper reviews some recent studies of direct gaze, to understand more about what neural and cognitive systems are engaged by this social cue and why. The data show that gaze can act as an arousal cue and can modulate actions, and can activate brain regions linked to theory of mind and self-related processing. However, all these results are strongly modulated by the social meaning of a gaze cue and by whether participants believe that another person is really watching them. The implications of these contextual effects and audience effects for our theories of gaze are considered.

Keywords: audience effect; autism; gaze; social cognition; theory of mind.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A summary of the cues which lead to the experience of direct gaze, some of the contextual modulation factors and the cognitive processes which can be activated by direct gaze. (Online version in colour.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Senju A, Johnson MH. 2009. The eye contact effect: mechanisms and development. Trends Cogn. Sci. 13, 127–134. (10.1016/j.tics.2008.11.009) - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kleinke CL. 1986. Gaze and eye contact: a research review. Psychol. Bull. 100, 78–100. (10.1037/0033-2909.100.1.78) - DOI - PubMed
    1. Itier RJ, Batty M. 2009. Neural bases of eye and gaze processing: the core of social cognition. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 33, 843–863. (10.1016/j.neubiorev.2009.02.004) - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Becchio C, Bertone C, Castiello U. 2008. How the gaze of others influences object processing. Trends Cogn. Sci. 12, 254–258. (10.1016/j.tics.2008.04.005) - DOI - PubMed
    1. von Grunau M, Anston C. 1995. The detection of gaze direction: a stare-in-the-crowd effect. Perception 24, 1297–1313. (10.1068/p241297) - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources