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Does gaze direction really trigger a reflexive shift of spatial attention?

Chris Kelland Friesen1, Chris Moore, Alan Kingstone

  • 1Department of Psychology, College of Science and Mathematics, North Dakota State University, P.O. Box 5075, Fargo, ND 58105-5075, USA. chris.freisen@ndsu.nodak.edu

Brain and Cognition
|January 5, 2005
PubMed
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Gaze direction cues, not just abrupt visual targets, trigger reflexive attention shifts. This study shows gaze cues, not target onset, are responsible for faster reaction times (RT) to peripheral stimuli.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Visual Attention Research

Background:

  • Central gaze cues from faces typically facilitate response time (RT) to peripheral targets.
  • This facilitation is often attributed to cortically mediated reflexive shifts of spatial attention triggered by gaze direction.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether abrupt peripheral target onset, rather than gaze direction, triggers reflexive spatial attention.
  • To test an alternative explanation: subcortically mediated attention shifts modulated by gaze compatibility.

Main Methods:

  • Compared RT to a single peripheral onset target with RT to a target accompanied by a distractor at the mirror opposite location.
  • Utilized central gaze cues to present stimuli.

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

  • The facilitation effect was identical whether the peripheral target appeared alone or with an equivalent distractor.
  • This indicates that the observed orienting effect is primarily driven by the gaze cue itself.

    • Conclusions:

    • The reflexive shift of spatial attention observed in previous studies is attributable to the gaze cue, not solely to the target's abrupt onset.
    • Gaze cues effectively guide attention, supporting their role in visual orienting mechanisms.