title: Eye contact elicits bodily self-awareness in human adults.
abstract: Eye contact is a typical human behaviour known to impact concurrent or subsequent cognitive processing. In particular, it has been suggested that eye contact induces self-awareness, though this has never been formally proven. Here, we show that the perception of a face with a direct gaze (that establishes eye contact), as compared to either a face with averted gaze or a mere fixation cross, led adult participants to rate more accurately the intensity of their physiological reactions induced by emotional pictures. Our data support the view that bodily self-awareness becomes more acute when one is subjected to another's gaze. Importantly, this effect was not related to a particular arousal state induced by eye contact perception. Rejecting the arousal hypothesis, we suggest that eye contact elicits a self-awareness process by enhancing self-focused attention in humans. We further discuss the implications of this proposal.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Psychopathology and Neuropsychology (LPN, EA2027), Université Paris 8, Saint-Denis 93526 cedex, France. Electronic address: matias.baltazar.p8@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Matias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Baltazar
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Psychopathology and Neuropsychology (LPN, EA2027), Université Paris 8, Saint-Denis 93526 cedex, France.
authors.forename: Nesrine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hazem
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Psychopathology and Neuropsychology (LPN, EA2027), Université Paris 8, Saint-Denis 93526 cedex, France.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vilarem
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Psychopathology and Neuropsychology (LPN, EA2027), Université Paris 8, Saint-Denis 93526 cedex, France.
authors.forename: Virginie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Beaucousin
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Psychopathology and Neuropsychology (LPN, EA2027), Université Paris 8, Saint-Denis 93526 cedex, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Picq
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Psychopathology and Neuropsychology (LPN, EA2027), Université Paris 8, Saint-Denis 93526 cedex, France.
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Conty
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D065812:Interoception / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Arousal; Eye contact; Interoception; Self-awareness; Self-focused attention