Perrett D I, Smith P A, Potter D D, Mistlin A J, Head A S, Milner A D, Jeeves M A
Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1985 Jan 22;223(1232):293-317. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1985.0003.
The direction of eye gaze and orientation of the face towards or away from another are important social signals for man and for macaque monkey. We have studied the effects of these signals in a region of the macaque temporal cortex where cells have been found to be responsive to the sight of faces. Of cells selectively responsive to the sight of the face or head but not to other objects (182 cells) 63% were sensitive to the orientation of the head. Different views of the head (full face, profile, back or top of the head, face rotated by 45 degrees up to the ceiling or down to the floor) maximally activated different classes of cell. All classes of cell, however, remained active as the preferred view was rotated isomorphically or was changed in size or distance. Isomorphic rotation by 90-180 degrees increased cell response latencies by 10-60 ms. Sensitivity to gaze direction was found for 64% of the cells tested that were tuned to head orientation. Eighteen cells most responsive to the full face preferred eye contact, while 18 cells tuned to the profile face preferred averted gaze. Sensitivity to gaze was thus compatible with, but could be independent of, sensitivity to head orientation. Results suggest that the recognition of one type of object may proceed via the independent high level analysis of several restricted views of the object (viewer-centred descriptions).
眼睛注视的方向以及脸部朝向或背向他人的方向，对于人类和猕猴来说都是重要的社交信号。我们已经在猕猴颞叶皮质的一个区域研究了这些信号的作用，在该区域已发现细胞对面部视觉有反应。在对脸部或头部视觉有选择性反应但对其他物体无反应的细胞（182个细胞）中，63%对头部的朝向敏感。头部的不同视图（正面、侧面、后脑勺或头顶、脸部向上或向下旋转45度）能最大程度地激活不同类别的细胞。然而，当首选视图同构旋转、大小改变或距离改变时，所有类别的细胞仍保持活跃。同构旋转90 - 180度会使细胞反应潜伏期增加10 - 60毫秒。在测试的对头部朝向有调谐的细胞中，64%对注视方向敏感。对正面最敏感的18个细胞偏好目光接触，而对侧面敏感的18个细胞偏好回避目光。因此，对注视的敏感性与对头部朝向的敏感性相符，但可能是独立的。结果表明，对一种类型物体的识别可能通过对该物体几个受限视图的独立高级分析（以观察者为中心的描述）来进行。
