Neural mechanisms of eye contact when listening to another person talking

Jing Jiang; Kamila Borowiak; Luke Tudge; Carolin Otto; Katharina von Kriegstein

doi:10.1093/scan/nsw127

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Neural mechanisms of eye contact when listening to another person talking

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Neural mechanisms of eye contact when listening to another person talking

Jing Jiang, Kamila Borowiak, Luke Tudge, Carolin Otto and Katharina von Kriegstein

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Vol.12(2), pp.319-328

10/20/2016

DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw127

PMCID: PMC5390711

PMID: 27576745

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https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsw127View

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Abstract

Eye contact occurs frequently and voluntarily during face-to-face verbal communication. However, the neural mechanisms underlying eye contact when it is accompanied by spoken language remain unexplored to date. A novel approach was implemented, involving fixation-based event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to simulate the listener making eye contact with a speaker during verbal communication. 30 healthy adults' eye movements and fMRI data were recorded simultaneously while they were freely viewing a pre-recorded speaker talking. The eye tracking data were then used to define events for the fMRI analyses. The results showed that eye contact in contrast to mouth fixation involved visual cortical areas (cuneus, calcarine sulcus), brain regions related to theory of mind/ intentionality processing (temporoparietal junction, posterior superior temporal sulcus, medial prefrontal cortex) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In addition, increased effective connectivity was found between these regions for eye contact in contrast to mouth fixations. The results provide first evidence for neural mechanisms underlying eye contact when watching and listening to another person talking. The network that was found might be well suited for processing the intentions of communication partners during eye contact in verbal communication. Original / ZPID

eye contact

verbal communication

fixation-based event-related fMRI

eye tracking

rapid event-related design

Details

Title: Subtitle: Neural mechanisms of eye contact when listening to another person talking
Creators: Jing Jiang
Kamila Borowiak
Luke Tudge
Carolin Otto
Katharina von Kriegstein
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Vol.12(2), pp.319-328
DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw127
PMID: 27576745
PMCID: PMC5390711
NLM abbreviation: Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci
ISSN: 1749-5016
eISSN: 1749-5024
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Language: English
Date published: 10/20/2016
Academic Unit: Psychiatry; Stead Family Department of Pediatrics; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Neurology (Pediatrics)
Record Identifier: 9984360007702771

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