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Abstract:
Detection of eye gaze is an important cue in "social
attention"; it signals us automatically the direction of another
individual's attention. Here we measured event-related potentials
(ERPs) to show that eye gaze direction is an automatic and powerful
cue to spatial attention, which modulates early visual processing.
Subjects responded to visual, laterally presented targets preceded
by a face with congruent or incongruent eye gaze direction. The
central face was presented 500 ms before the lateralized target
appeared, and remained on the screen until subject's response. ERP
measurement show reliable changes in the amplitude of the early
occipital P1 (80-130 ms) and occipital-temporal N1 (170-210 ms)
components as a function of cue validity. Both of these components
were larger in amplitude when elicited by a valid trial.
Furthermore, the N1 peaked earlier in the congruent condition.
These results indicate that automatic attentional processes, which
are triggered by a socially relevant cue, here eye gaze direction,
modulate the early occipital temporal activity.
supported by the Belgian FNRS and the Government of
Luxembourg
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