Sent on behalf of Jelena Ristic

Dear Colleagues,

This is a quick reminder that Dr Nicolas Burra from the University of Geneva (https://www.unige.ch/fapse/cognition/burra.php) will be presenting his work on the neural correlates of perception of human gaze TODAY from 11.00am-12.30pm EDT (ZOOM).

Talk Title: The role of top-down mechanisms in direct gaze perception.

Abstract: Human beings, as a social species, have a heightened ability to detect and perceive visual features involved in social exchange, such as faces and eyes. In particular, eye gaze conveys information crucial for social interactions. Researchers have posited that in order to engage in dynamic face-to-face communication in real time, our brains need to process another person's gaze direction rapidly and automatically. Evidence indicates that direct gaze enhances face encoding and attentional capture and that direct gaze is perceived and processed more quickly than averted gaze. These findings are summarized as the "direct gaze effect". However, in the recent literature, evidence suggests that the mode of visual information processing modulates the effect of direct gaze. In project we are presenting, we claim that top-down processing, and specifically the task relevance of eye features, promotes early preferential processing of direct compared to indirect gaze. We propose that

low relevance of eye features in the task will prevent differences in processing eye direction between gaze direction because its encoding will be superficial. The differential treatment of direct and indirect gaze will only occur when the eyes are task-relevant. To assess the implication of task relevance on the temporality of cognitive processing, we will measure event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to facial stimuli. In this project, instead of the typical ERP markers such as the P1, N170, or P300, we will measure lateralized components such as the lateralized N170 and the N2pc, which are markers of early face encoding and attentional deployment respectively. We hypothesize that the task relevance of eye features is crucial in the direct gaze effect and propose to reexamine previous studies, which had cast doubt on the existence of the direct gaze effect. In this talk, we will present the planned experiments as well as some preliminary data. Overall, these studies contribute to the gaze processing literature both at empirical and theoretical levels by assessing systematically the role of top-down processing in the early perception of direct gaze.

ZOOM Link: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/81914134311

I hope many of you can join us for this event to round up the Spring semester!

Please excuse multiple postings.

Best,

Jelena Ristic

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Jelena Ristic, PhD Professor & William Dawson Scholar Department of Psychology, McGill University 1205 Dr. Penfield Avenue, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B1 Phone: 514.398.2091 Email: jelena.ristic@mcgill.ca Web: http://www.mcgill.ca/asc