Abstract

In this chapter we focus on the neural processes that occur in the mature healthy human brain in response to evaluating another’s social attention. We first examine the brain’s sensitivity to gaze direction of others, social attention (as typically indicated by gaze contact), and joint attention. Brain regions such as the superior temporal sulcus (STS), the amygdala, and the fusiform gyrus have been previously demonstrated to be sensitive to gaze changes, most frequently with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Neurophysiological investigations, using electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), have identified event-related potentials (ERPs) such as the N170 that are sensitive to changes in gaze direction and head direction. We advance a putative model that explains findings relating to the neurophysiology of social attention, based mainly on our studies. This model proposes two brain modes of social information processing—a nonsocial “Default” mode and a social mode that we have named “Socially Aware”. In Default mode, there is an internal focus on executing actions to achieve our goals, as evident in studies in which passive viewing or tasks involving nonsocial judgments have been used. In contrast, Socially Aware mode is active when making explicit social judgments. Switching between these two modes is rapid and can occur via either top-down or bottom-up routes. From a different perspective, most of the literature, including our own studies, has focused on social attention phenomena as experienced from the first-person perspective, i.e., gaze changes or social attention directed at, or away from, the observer. However, in daily life we are actively involved in observing social interactions between others, where their social attention focus may not include us, or their gaze may not meet ours. Hence, changes in eye gaze and social attention are experienced from the third-person perspective. This area of research is still fairly small, but nevertheless important in the study of social and joint attention, and we discuss this very small literature briefly at the end of the chapter. We conclude the chapter with some outstanding questions, which are aimed at the main knowledge gaps in the literature.