Although indirect evidence suggested that this was usually not the case (see Fattori et al., 2005), a direct demonstration of separate effects of the direction of gaze and the direction of arm movement on the activity of V6A neurons is still lacking.
The direction of gaze is particularly relevant in social interactions, with mutual or direct gaze forming a key component, signaling interest in the recipient, the intent to communicate, and potential approach, whereas averted gaze generally signals a lack of interest and avoidance.
In order to determine which gaze deviation observers judge as direct when the head is rotated, subjects used key presses to categorize the direction of gaze as looking straight at them, to their right, or to their left.
Indeed, chimps infer the direction of gaze by looking at another's head, but infants do so by watching the eyes.
It is also an example of what seems to be a primal human interaction the mutual direction of gaze.
The deviation is called "concomitant" if it remains constant in all directions of gaze and "incomitant" if the degree of misalignment varies with the direction of gaze.
Because only a small portion of the retina, the fovea, is actually employed for distinct vision, it is vitally important that the motor apparatus governing the direction of gaze be extremely precise in its operation, and rapid.
Clinically, strabismus can be divided into concomitant, in which the abnormal angle between the visual axes remains constant in all positions of gaze, and incomitant, in which the eye deviation varies with the direction of gaze.
Researchers have probed whether they appreciate the relationship between the direction of gaze and attention, or between seeing something and acquiring information.
The latter was specifically intended to explain why we do not experience object displacement in the world whenever we change the direction of gaze.
We recorded behavior in four categories: (1) the direction of gaze, (2) verbal interactions, (3) motor behavior (primarily hands/arms), (4) facial expression/affect.
