Department of Psychology, University of Virginia.
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2017 Jan;12(1):107-121. doi: 10.1177/1745691616654457.
Eyes have been shown to play a key role during human social interactions. However, to date, no comprehensive cross-discipline model has provided a framework that can account for uniquely human responses to eye cues. In this review, I present a framework that brings together work on the phylogenetic, ontogenetic, and neural bases of perceiving and responding to eyes. Specifically, I argue for a two-process model: a first process that ensures privileged attention to information encoded in the eyes and is important for the detection of other minds and a second process that permits the decoding of information contained in the eyes concerning another person's emotional and mental states. To some degree, these processes are unique to humans, emerge during different times in infant development, can be mapped onto distinct but interconnected brain regions, and likely serve critical functions in facilitating cooperative interactions in humans. I also present evidence to show that oxytocin is a key modulator of sensitive responding to eye cues. Viewing eyes as windows into other minds can therefore be considered a hallmark feature of human social functioning deeply rooted in our biology.
眼睛在人类社交互动中扮演着关键角色。然而，迄今为止，还没有一个全面的跨学科模型为人类对眼睛线索的独特反应提供了一个框架。在这篇综述中，我提出了一个框架，将感知和回应眼睛的进化、发育和神经基础的工作结合在一起。具体来说，我认为存在一个双过程模型：第一个过程确保对眼睛中编码的信息给予特别关注，这对于检测他人的心理和心灵至关重要；第二个过程允许解码眼睛中关于另一个人情绪和心理状态的信息。在某种程度上，这些过程是人类所特有的，在婴儿发育的不同时期出现，可以映射到不同但相互关联的大脑区域，并可能在促进人类合作互动方面发挥关键作用。我还提出证据表明，催产素是对眼睛线索敏感反应的关键调节因子。因此，将眼睛视为洞察他人心灵的窗口，可以被视为人类社会功能的一个标志性特征，它深深植根于我们的生物学中。
