Do facial gestures, visibility or speed of movement influence gaze following responses in pigtail macaques?
This study investigated whether a human model's facial gestures, speed of head turn and visibility of face influenced gaze-following responses (GFR) in pigtail macaques. A human provided gaze cues by turning her head 90 degrees in one of four directions. Head turns were immediately followed by a facial movement (pucker, eyebrow raise, tongue protrusion, neutral), or were executed swiftly (<0.5 s), slowly (3 s) or whilst facing away from the monkeys. All monkeys reliably followed the gaze in all conditions with no differences between conditions. A greater frequency of GFR was found in females compared to males, and two hypotheses for this finding are discussed.
Paukner
Annika
A
Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, UK. pauknera@mail.nih.gov
Anderson
James R
JR
Fogassi
Leonardo
L
Ferrari
Pier F
PF
D000818:Animals; D003071:Cognition; D005145:Face; D005149:Facial Expression; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D006257:Head; D008254:Macaca nemestrina / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D009043:Motor Activity; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D012919:Social Behavior