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Tuning Eye-Gaze Perception by Transitory STS Inhibition
Ana Saitovitch1, Traian Popa2, Hervé Lemaitre3
1INSERM U1000, Department of Pediatric Radiology, Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades, AP-HP, University René Descartes, PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, UMR 1163, Institut Imagine, Paris, France.
Inhibiting the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in healthy adults reduced eye-gaze perception, causing participants to look less at eyes in social movies. This finding highlights the pSTS role in social cognition and offers potential autism intervention insights.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Social Cognition
- Psychology
Background:
- Eye-gaze processing is crucial for human social interaction.
- The superior temporal sulcus (STS) is implicated in eye-gaze perception.
- Autism is associated with atypical eye-gaze preference and STS abnormalities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if modulating neural activity in the STS can interfere with eye-gaze processing.
- To examine the causal role of the posterior STS (pSTS) in directing attention to eyes.
Main Methods:
- Inhibitory transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied over the right and left pSTS in healthy volunteers.
- Eye-tracking measured participants' gaze behavior during passive viewing of social movies before and after TMS.
- A placebo TMS condition was used as a control.
Main Results:
- Inhibition of the right pSTS significantly decreased participants' tendency to look at the eyes of characters in social movies.
- This effect was specific to eye-gaze and not observed after left pSTS or placebo TMS.
- These findings demonstrate a causal link between right pSTS activity and orienting towards eyes.
Conclusions:
- Disrupting right pSTS neural activity transiently impairs eye-gaze perception, specifically the behavior of orienting towards eyes.
- This research provides the first experimental evidence in humans for the pSTS's role in gaze perception.
- The findings suggest potential avenues for therapeutic interventions targeting social cognition deficits in autism.
