title: What interests them in the pictures?--differences in eye-tracking between rhesus monkeys and humans.
abstract: Studies estimating eye movements have demonstrated that non-human primates have fixation patterns similar to humans at the first sight of a picture. In the current study, three sets of pictures containing monkeys, humans or both were presented to rhesus monkeys and humans. The eye movements on these pictures by the two species were recorded using a Tobii eye-tracking system. We found that monkeys paid more attention to the head and body in pictures containing monkeys, whereas both monkeys and humans paid more attention to the head in pictures containing humans. The humans always concentrated on the eyes and head in all the pictures, indicating the social role of facial cues in society. Although humans paid more attention to the hands than monkeys, both monkeys and humans were interested in the hands and what was being done with them in the pictures. This may suggest the importance and necessity of hands for survival. Finally, monkeys scored lower in eye-tracking when fixating on the pictures, as if they were less interested in looking at the screen than humans. The locations of fixation in monkeys may provide insight into the role of eye movements in an evolutionary context.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650223, China.
authors.forename: Ying-Zhou
authors.initials: YZ
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Hui-Hui
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Ci-Rong
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jian-Hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Cheng-Yang
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Synnöve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carlson
authors.forename: Shang-Chuan
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Veli-Matti
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Saarinen
authors.forename: Joshua D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Rizak
authors.forename: Xiao-Guang
authors.initials: XG
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Hen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Zhu-Yue
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yuan-Ye
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Xin-Tian
authors.initials: XT
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003463:Cues; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult