ECVP 2007 Abstract

Cite as:
Guo K, Hall C, Hall S, Meints K, Mills D, 2007, "Left gaze bias in human infants, rhesus monkeys, and domestic dogs" Perception 36 ECVP Abstract Supplement

Left gaze bias in human infants, rhesus monkeys, and domestic dogs

K Guo, C Hall, S Hall, K Meints, D Mills

While viewing faces, human participants often demonstrate natural gaze bias towards the left visual field, that is the right side of the person's face is often inspected first and for a longer period. With preferential-looking and eye-tracking procedures, we observed that infants as young as 7 months of age showed a left gaze bias for upright human faces and for symmetrical everyday objects. Rhesus monkeys showed left gaze bias towards both upright human and monkey faces, but not towards the inverted faces. Domestic dogs, however, demonstrated left gaze bias only towards human faces, but not towards macaque or dog faces, nor symmetrical object images. Our findings suggest that the left gaze bias towards faces is closely associated with adaptive cognitive processes, related to a predominant role of the right hemisphere for facial-information processing.

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