Guo Kun, Mahmoodi Sasan, Robertson Robert G, Young Malcolm P
Department of Psychology, University of Newcastle, NE2 4HH Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Exp Brain Res. 2006 May;171(1):91-8. doi: 10.1007/s00221-005-0248-y. Epub 2005 Nov 24.
The spatio-temporal properties of saccadic eye movements can be influenced by the cognitive demand and the characteristics of the observed scene. Probably due to its crucial role in social communication, it is argued that face perception may involve different cognitive processes compared with non-face object or scene perception. In this study, we investigated whether and how face and natural scene images can influence the patterns of visuomotor activity. We recorded monkeys' saccadic eye movements as they freely viewed monkey face and natural scene images. The face and natural scene images attracted similar number of fixations, but viewing of faces was accompanied by longer fixations compared with natural scenes. These longer fixations were dependent on the context of facial features. The duration of fixations directed at facial contours decreased when the face images were scrambled, and increased at the later stage of normal face viewing. The results suggest that face and natural scene images can generate different patterns of visuomotor activity. The extra fixation duration on faces may be correlated with the detailed analysis of facial features.
扫视眼动的时空特性会受到认知需求和所观察场景特征的影响。可能由于其在社交交流中的关键作用，有人认为与非面部物体或场景感知相比，面部感知可能涉及不同的认知过程。在本研究中，我们调查了面部和自然场景图像是否以及如何影响视觉运动活动模式。我们记录了猴子自由观看猴子面部和自然场景图像时的扫视眼动。面部和自然场景图像吸引的注视次数相似，但与自然场景相比，观看面部时的注视时间更长。这些更长的注视时间取决于面部特征的背景。当面部图像被打乱时，针对面部轮廓的注视持续时间会减少，而在正常面部观看的后期会增加。结果表明，面部和自然场景图像可以产生不同的视觉运动活动模式。对面部的额外注视持续时间可能与对面部特征的详细分析有关。
