Submitted via IRC for Bytram
A tilt of the head facilitates social engagement, researchers say
Scientists have known for decades that when we look at a face, we tend to focus on the left side of the face we're viewing, from the viewer's perspective. Called the "left-gaze bias," this phenomenon is thought to be rooted in the brain, the right hemisphere of which dominates the face-processing task.
Researchers also know that we have a terrible time "reading" a face that's upside down. It's as if our neural circuits become scrambled, and we are challenged to grasp the most basic information. Much less is known about the middle ground, how we take in faces that are rotated or slightly tilted¬.
"We take in faces holistically, all at once—not feature by feature," said Davidenko. "But no one had studied where we look on rotated faces."
Davidenko used eye-tracking technology to get the answers, and what he found surprised him: The left-gaze bias completely vanished and an "upper eye bias" emerged, even with a tilt as minor as 11 degrees off center.
"People tend to look first at whichever eye is higher," he said. "A slight tilt kills the left-gaze bias that has been known for so long. That's what's so interesting. I was surprised how strong it was."
[...] The effect is strongest when the rotation is 45 degrees. The upper-eye bias is much weaker at a 90-degree rotation. "Ninety degrees is too weird," said Davidenko. "People don't know where to look, and it changes their behavior totally."
Davidenko's findings appear in the latest edition of the journal Perception, in an article titled "The Upper Eye Bias: Rotated Faces Draw Fixations to the Upper." His coauthors are Hema Kopalle, a graduate student in the Department of Neurosciences at UC San Diego who was an undergraduate researcher on the project, and the late Bruce Bridgeman, professor emeritus of psychology at UCSC.
More information: Nicolas Davidenko et al. The Upper Eye Bias: Rotated Faces Draw Fixations to the Upper Eye, Perception (2018). DOI: 10.1177/0301006618819628
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 02 2019, @07:47PM (3 children)
Look in a mirror, focus on the blood vessels in one of your eyes, now rotate your head back and forth +/- 30 degrees on the roll axis.
If your eyes are like mine, they will rotate to stay upright, up to a point. I don't know if this is controlled by the semicircular canal sense, optical processing, or some combination, but it's really freaky to watch.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Wednesday January 02 2019, @08:11PM (2 children)
Oh man, and I can move my hand, and when I try to keep my finger pointed at the same point it does. It's like I've got some kind of psychic control over my own body. Far out.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 02 2019, @08:35PM (1 child)
Now, try to rotate your eyeballs like that without rotating your head...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Wednesday January 02 2019, @09:23PM
This is really easy, grab an object in your hand, move your hand back and forth, focus on the object.
Guy, I know it feels like you found something profound. But it's really normal human function.