Department for Hand, Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Department of General, Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
Aesthet Surg J. 2021 Jul 14;41(8):NP1118-NP1124. doi: 10.1093/asj/sjab121.
Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic facecovers have become a common sight. The effect of facecovers on the gaze when looking at faces has not yet been assessed.
The aim of the present study was to investigate any potential differences in eye movement pattern in observers exposed to images showing a face without and with a facecover to identify if there is truly a change of gaze when identifying (masked) facial features.
The eye movement of 64 study participants (28 males and 36 females) with a mean [standard deviation] age of 31.84 [9.0] years was analyzed in this cross-sectional observational study. Eye movement analysis was conducted based on positional changes of eye features within an x- and y-coordinate system while two images (face without/with facecover) were displayed for 8 seconds.
The results of this study revealed that the sequence of focusing on facial regions was not altered when wearing a facecover and followed the sequence: perioral, nose, periorbital. Wearing a facecover significantly increased the time spent focusing on the periorbital region and also increased the number of repeated eye fixations during the 8-second visual stimulus presentation. No statistically significant differences were observed between male and female participants in their eye movement pattern across all investigated variables (P > 0.433).
The altered eye movement pattern caused by wearing facecoverings that this study has revealed suggests that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, aesthetic practitioners might consider developing marketing and treatment strategies that principally target the periorbital area.
自 COVID-19 大流行以来，口罩已成为常见景象。口罩对面部注视的影响尚未得到评估。
本研究旨在调查观察者在暴露于显示无口罩和有口罩的面部图像时眼动模式的任何潜在差异，以确定在识别（掩蔽）面部特征时是否真的存在注视变化。
本横断面观察性研究分析了 64 名研究参与者（28 名男性和 36 名女性）的眼动，他们的平均（标准差）年龄为 31.84（9.0）岁。眼动分析是基于 x 和 y 坐标系统内眼特征的位置变化进行的，同时显示两张图像（无口罩/有口罩）8 秒。
本研究的结果表明，佩戴口罩时，对面部区域的聚焦顺序并未改变，遵循的顺序是：口周、鼻子、眶周。佩戴口罩会显著增加对眶周区域的注视时间，并在 8 秒的视觉刺激呈现期间增加重复眼动的次数。在所有研究变量中，男性和女性参与者的眼动模式均无统计学差异（P＞0.433）。
本研究揭示的口罩佩戴引起的眼动模式改变表明，在 COVID-19 大流行期间，美学从业者可能需要考虑制定主要针对眶周区域的营销策略和治疗策略。
