Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Wallstraße 3, 55116 Mainz, Germany.
Behav Res Ther. 2013 Jul;51(7):359-67. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2013.03.009. Epub 2013 Apr 10.
Gaze plays a crucial role in social interactions. Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), which is associated with severe impairment of social interactions, is thus likely to exhibit disturbances of gaze perception. We conducted two experiments with SAD-patients and healthy control participants using a virtual head whose gaze could be interactively manipulated. We determined the subjective area of mutual gaze, the so-called gaze cone, and measured it prior to and after a psychotherapeutic intervention (Exp. 1). Patients exhibited larger gaze cones than control subjects. Exp. 2 varied the emotional expression of the virtual head. These data were validated using a real person (professional actor) as stimulus. Excellent reliability indices were found for our gaze cone measure. After Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, group differences in gaze cone width had disappeared. Emotional expressions were observed to modulate the gaze cone's width. Especially an angry expression caused the gaze cone to widen, possibly mediated by increased arousal. Finally, wider gaze cones in SAD-patients could be demonstrated for virtual and for real human heads confirming the ecological validity of virtual heads. The findings are of relevance for a more fine-grained understanding of perceptual processes in patients with SAD.
注视在社交互动中起着至关重要的作用。社交焦虑障碍（SAD）与严重的社交互动障碍有关，因此很可能表现出注视感知障碍。我们使用可以互动操纵注视的虚拟头部，对 SAD 患者和健康对照组参与者进行了两项实验。我们确定了主观的共同注视区域，即所谓的注视锥，在心理治疗干预之前和之后测量了它（实验 1）。患者的注视锥比对照组大。实验 2 改变了虚拟头部的情绪表达。这些数据使用真实的人（专业演员）作为刺激进行了验证。我们的注视锥测量得到了极好的可靠性指标。在认知行为治疗之后，注视锥宽度的组间差异已经消失。观察到情绪表达会调节注视锥的宽度。特别是愤怒的表情会使注视锥变宽，可能是通过增加唤醒来介导的。最后，对于虚拟和真实人头，SAD 患者的注视锥可以表现出更宽，证实了虚拟人头的生态有效性。这些发现对于更精细地理解 SAD 患者的感知过程具有重要意义。
