Induced Gamma-Band Brain Responses to Direct Eye Contact S Iwaki |
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Natl Inst of Adv Indust Sci & Tech (AIST), Japan
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| Recent neuroimaging studies on the perception of facial expression have elucidated that the changes in eye gaze directed to the observer evoke specific neural responses in the posterior inferior temporal and posterior superior-temporal regions. However, it is still unclear how the changes in the eye gaze direction between the directly facing subjects changes the spontaneous brain activities in both subjects. In this study, we used simultaneous recordings of the neuromagnetic (MEG) and EEG on a pair of directly facing subjects, i.e., the sender and the observer of the eye gaze, to measure changes in the spontaneous brain activities while the observer perceives changes in eye gaze direction of the sender. The MEG signals were analyzed in the time-frequency domain to evaluate event-related changes in the spontaneous brain activities induced by the onset of eye movements. Significant increase in the gamma-band power was observed in the eye-contact condition compared to the averting condition in the right superior parietal, bilateral posterior superior-temporal, and the frontal areas of the observer. The increase in gamma-band activities in these regions might reflect the recruitment of the human mirror neuron system during the perception of gaze direction of the directly facing individual. |
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