Centre for Autism, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6DZ, UK.
Faculty of Health, Education and Society, University of Northampton, Northampton, UK.
Sci Rep. 2023 Sep 10;13(1):14921. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-41900-0.
Detecting when others are looking at us is a crucial social skill. Accordingly, a range of gaze angles is perceived as self-directed; this is termed the "cone of direct gaze" (CoDG). Multiple cues, such as nose and head orientation, are integrated during gaze perception. Thus, occluding the lower portion of the face, such as with face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, may influence how gaze is perceived. Individual differences in the prioritisation of eye-region and non-eye-region cues may modulate the influence of face masks on gaze perception. Autistic individuals, who may be more reliant on non-eye-region directional cues during gaze perception, might be differentially affected by face masks. In the present study, we compared the CoDG when viewing masked and unmasked faces (N = 157) and measured self-reported autistic traits. The CoDG was wider for masked compared to unmasked faces, suggesting that reduced reliability of lower face cues increases the range of gaze angles perceived as self-directed. Additionally, autistic traits positively predicted the magnitude of CoDG difference between masked and unmasked faces. This study provides crucial insights into the effect of face masks on gaze perception, and how they may affect autistic individuals to a greater extent.
检测他人是否在看我们是一项至关重要的社交技能。因此，一系列的注视角度被视为自我指向的；这被称为“直接注视圆锥”（CoDG）。在注视感知过程中，会整合多种线索，例如鼻子和头部的方向。因此，在 COVID-19 大流行期间，用口罩遮挡面部的下部，可能会影响对注视的感知。个体对眼部区域和非眼部区域线索的优先排序的差异可能会调节口罩对视觉感知的影响。自闭症个体在注视感知过程中可能更依赖于非眼部区域的方向线索，因此可能会受到口罩的不同影响。在本研究中，我们比较了观看戴口罩和不戴口罩的面部时的 CoDG（N=157），并测量了自我报告的自闭症特征。与不戴口罩的面部相比，戴口罩的面部的 CoDG 更宽，这表明下部面部线索的可靠性降低会增加被感知为自我指向的注视角度范围。此外，自闭症特征正向预测了戴口罩和不戴口罩的面部之间 CoDG 差异的大小。这项研究提供了关于口罩对视觉感知影响的重要见解，以及它们如何对自闭症个体产生更大的影响。
