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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @07:29PM (1 child)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpNQd2qsDYE [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u6D7w9ETcM [youtube.com]
well... Shaft does, anyway
CYA
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @07:36PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_AjhqyHa_Q [youtube.com]
(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.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(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...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(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.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @08:16PM (1 child)
as far back as the past century or so.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday January 03 2019, @04:18AM
Both my dog and cat do it, seemingly to express confusion, curiosity, or an unfulfilled expectation.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday January 03 2019, @02:17AM (2 children)
My hot, heroin-addicted lady didn't want to kiss me when we met for coffee a couple hours. Just in the last few days she's seemed quite distant.
I contemplated asking whether she needed something from me, or needed to say something to me, but if I do ask I'll wait until she and I have both a good night's sleep, which is _exceedingly_ uncommon as she is so heavily OCD that last Thursday night SHE SPENT FIFTEEN SOLID HOURS DOING HER MAKEUP then went to work - turning tricks in South-East Portland - without having slept, then proceeded to stay awake for three more days.
It happens that I commonly turn my right ear to whoever is talking to me, as I am deaf to high frequencies in my left. But when I do so, I as well commonly look straight down at my feet. Clearly that's not the way to facilitate kiss-kiss with a hot, heroin-addicted lady.
In other news, later tonight I'll launch a GoFundMe to raise the cash for some Narcan (naloxone) opiate overdose antidote as well as some woolen clothing so as to keep her warm when she's blowing strange and uncaring men in the driving snow.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03 2019, @04:21AM (1 child)
She's gonna give you the gift that keeps on giving.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday January 03 2019, @06:21AM
"Suit up before you play."
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 03 2019, @02:45AM
Your primitive culture doesn't efficiently extract the brain with your mouth tentacles and digest the knowledge at your leisure? How quaint.