Look Me In The Eye! - Scientific Station™ - 14 November 2009

Look me in the eye

Attention seeking at first glance seems to be a purely human quality. However our reliance on vision is rooted in primate evolution. Seeing has helped us find better food, safer housing, and more attractive mates.

Vision has become so important to us that we first seek out others' eyes in new situations. It worries us when others do not return our glance.

Jeffrey Klein, Stephen Shepherd and Michael Platt published a review in Current Biology examining the neural circuits that mediate visual information and influence our social attention.

Not only who looks at us, but who we are looking at and how "betrays much about our own identity" the authors write "who we are, where we come from, our gender, age and social status" are all on display in our gaze.

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