Seeing direct and averted gaze activates the approach–avoidance motivational brain systems
Section snippets
Participants
The participants were 20 adults (12 females, mean age = 24.8 years, range 20–40 years) with normal or corrected-to-normal vision. An additional five participants were tested but excluded due to excessive artifacts (n = 2) or technical error (n = 3) in the electroencephalography. In one of the remaining 20 participants, the skin conductance recording was not successful due to technical problems. Thus, the skin conductance responses were analyzed from 19 participants. Informed, written consent was
Results
The mean EEG asymmetry scores based on the measurements from a frontally located pair of electrodes are presented in Fig. 2. These data were first analyzed with a three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA, within-subjects) having stimulus (face vs. control object), direction (direct vs. averted), and presentation mode (live vs. picture) as factors. The ANOVA indicated the main effect of stimulus, F(1, 19) = 5.2, p < .05, , as well as stimulus × direction, F(1, 19) = 5.6, p < .05, , and stimulus ×
Discussion
In the present study, we investigated (a) whether seeing another person's direct vs. averted gaze influences the basic motivational–emotional responses of approach and avoidance and (b) whether it would make a difference to these responses if the participants were looking at the face of a real person or a picture. The pictures were presented on a computer monitor and the live stimuli were presented through a liquid crystal shutter. As dependent variables we measured power in the alpha band EEG
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the NEURO-programme of the Academy of Finland (project no. 1111850). We would like to express our gratitude to Riitta Hari, Risto Näätänen, David Perrett, and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the previous versions of the manuscript.
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