AUTHOR=Shepherd Stephen V.

TITLE=Following Gaze: Gaze-Following Behavior as a Window into Social Cognition

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience

VOLUME=4

YEAR=2010

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/integrative-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnint.2010.00005

DOI=10.3389/fnint.2010.00005

ISSN=1662-5145

ABSTRACT=<p>In general, individuals look where they attend and next intend to act. Many animals, including our own species, use observed gaze as a deictic (“pointing”) cue to guide behavior. Among humans, these responses are reflexive and pervasive: they arise within a fraction of a second, act independently of task relevance, and appear to undergird our initial development of language and theory of mind. Human and nonhuman animals appear to share basic gaze-following behaviors, suggesting the foundations of human social cognition may also be present in nonhuman brains.</p>