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
. 2018 Aug 21;9(4):2041669518765852.
doi: 10.1177/2041669518765852. eCollection 2018 Jul-Aug.

The Role of the Pupil, Corneal Reflex, and Iris in Determining the Perceived Direction of Gaze

Affiliations

The Role of the Pupil, Corneal Reflex, and Iris in Determining the Perceived Direction of Gaze

Stuart Anstis. Iperception. .

Abstract

In specially constructed movies depicting moving eyes, the pupils, irises, and corneal reflexes moved independently and sometimes in opposite directions. We found that the moving pupils or the corneal reflex, not the moving irises, determined the perceived direction of gaze (online Movie 1). When the pupils and irises moved in opposite directions, the one with the higher Michelson contrast determined the perceived direction of gaze (online Movie 2).

Keywords: eye movements; gaze; induced movement; iris; local motion; pupil.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Gaze appears to be shifted (a) slightly right, (b) left, and (c) strongly left (see text).

References

    1. Anstis S., Casco C. (2006) Induced movement: The flying bluebottle illusion. Journal of Vision 6: 1087–1092. doi:10.1167/6.10.8. - PubMed
    1. Anstis S. M., Mayhew J. W., Morley T. (1969) The perception of where a face or television “portrait” is looking. American Journal of Psychology 82: 474–489. - PubMed
    1. Gamer M., Hecht H. (2007) Are you looking at me? Measuring the cone of gaze. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 33: 705–715. - PubMed
    1. George N., Conty L. (2008) Facing the gaze of others. Clinical Neurophysiology 38: 197–207. doi:10.1016/j.neucli.2008.03.001. - PubMed
    1. Gibson J. J., Pick A. D. (1963) Perception of another person’s looking behavior. American Journal of Psychology 76: 386–394. - PubMed

How to cite this article

    1. Anstis, S. (2018). The role of the pupil, corneal reflex, and iris in determining the perceived direction of gaze. i-Perception, 9(4), 1–4. doi: 10.1177/2041669518765852. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources