Social status gates social attention in humans

Humans tend to shift attention in response to the averted gaze of a face they are fixating, a phenomenon known as gaze cuing. In the present paper, we aimed to address whether the social status of the cuing face modulates this phenomenon. Participants were asked to look at the faces of 16 individuals and read fictive curriculum vitae associated with each of them that could describe the person as having a high or low social status. The association between each specific face and either high or low social status was counterbalanced between participants. The same faces were then used as stimuli in a gaze-cuing task. The results showed a greater gaze-cuing effect for high-status faces than for low-status faces, independently of the specific identity of the face. These findings confirm previous evidence regarding the important role of social factors in shaping social attention and show that a modulation of gaze cuing can be observed even when knowledge about social status is acquired through episodic learning.     

Social orienting in gaze leading: a mechanism for shared attention

Here, we report a novel social orienting response that occurs after viewing averted gaze. We show, in three experiments, that when a person looks from one location to an object, attention then shifts towards the face of an individual who has subsequently followed the person''s gaze to that same object. That is, contrary to ‘gaze following’, attention instead orients in the opposite direction to observed gaze and towards the gazing face. The magnitude of attentional orienting towards a face that ‘follows’ the participant''s gaze is also associated with self-reported autism-like traits. We propose that this gaze leading phenomenon implies the existence of a mechanism in the human social cognitive system for detecting when one''s gaze has been followed, in order to establish ‘shared attention’ and maintain the ongoing interaction.     

Economic principles motivating social attention in humans

We know little about the processes by which we evaluate the opportunity to look at another person. We propose that behavioural economics provides a powerful approach to understanding this basic aspect of social attention. We hypothesized that the decision process culminating in attention to another person follows the same economic principles that govern choices about rewards such as food, drinks and money. Specifically, such rewards are discounted as a function of time, are tradable for other rewards, and reinforce work. Behavioural and neurobiological evidence suggests that looking at other people can also be described as rewarding, but to what extent these economic principles apply to social orienting remains unknown. Here, we show that the opportunity to view pictures of the opposite sex is discounted by delay to viewing, substitutes for money and reinforces work. The reward value of photos of the opposite sex varied with physical attractiveness and was greater in men, suggesting differential utility of acquiring visual information about the opposite sex in men and women. Together, these results demonstrate that choosing whom to look at follows a general set of economic principles, implicating shared neural mechanisms in both social and non-social decision making.     

面孔社会信息对注视提示效应的调制及其神经机制

眼睛注视是一种独特的非言语社会线索,能够诱发对生存和进化至关重要的注意效应。近年来,研究者采用中央线索提示范式及其变式,关注了面孔社会信息尤其是表情对这一注意效应的调节。面孔表情的调节作用与具体的表情类型有关,同时会受到任务因素和个体因素的影响。这一调节作用会随个体发展而逐渐成熟,与负责对面孔表情和注视方向各自及整合加工的机制相关,涉及到杏仁核和颞上沟脑区。除了面孔表情,其他面孔社会信息(如熟悉性和可信任度、优势度和社会地位、群体属性)也可以调节注视提示效应。这一调节可能涉及额叶视区、额顶注意网络。对面孔表情及其他社会信息调制注视提示效应的行为学证据及其神经机制进行系统综述,能够深化当前对面孔加工和注视提示效应间关系的理解,为社会认知障碍的临床诊断和干预提供参考。     

Proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) social organization: Intergroup patterns of association

Proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) social organization was studied at the Natai Lengkuas station, Tanjung Puting National Park in Kalimantan Tengah, Indonesia. Data were collected on ten one-male groups and two all-male groups using scan sampling and event sampling during follows, and through evening census surveys. Proboscis monkeys were found to form stable one-male groups. Specific groups associated at their sleeping sites, in a manner similar to the fission-fusion pattern described for hamadryas and gelada baboons. Analyses performed on these associations indicated that the groups formed two separate bands. These separate bands appear to be a secondary level of organization, distinct from the primary level of organization, the one-male and all-male groups. This is the first evidence for such a two-tiered system of organization in an arboreal colobine species. Proboscis monkeys closely resemble gelada baboons in their organizational pattern. In both species, adult females direct the majority of their affiliative behavior towards their offspring and other adult females, males do not engage in active herding, all-male groups are present, and one-male groups do spend time apart from other groups. Home ranges of both groups and of bands of proboscis monkeys overlapped extensively; temporal avoidance between bands may have been mediated by early morning vocalizations and branch shaking displays.     

European starlings recognize the location of robotic conspecific attention

Looking where others are allocating attention can facilitate social interactions by providing information about objects or locations of interest. We asked whether European starlings follow the orientation behaviour of conspecifics owing to their highly gregarious behaviour. Starlings reoriented their attention to follow that of a robot around a barrier more often than when the robot''s attention was directed elsewhere. This is the first empirical evidence of reorienting in response to conspecific attention in a songbird. Starlings may use this behaviour to obtain fine-tuned spatial information from conspecifics (e.g. direction of predator approach, spatial location of food patches), enhancing group cohesion.     

Reflexive social attention in monkeys and humans

For humans, social cues often guide the focus of attention. Although many nonhuman primates, like humans, live in large, complex social groups, the extent to which human and nonhuman primates share fundamental mechanisms of social attention remains unexplored. Here, we show that, when viewing a rhesus macaque looking in a particular direction, both rhesus macaques and humans reflexively and covertly orient their attention in the same direction. Specifically, when performing a peripheral visual target detection task, viewing a monkey with either its eyes alone or with both its head and eyes averted to one side facilitated the detection of peripheral targets when they randomly appeared on the same side. Moreover, viewing images of a monkey with averted gaze evoked small but systematic shifts in eye position in the direction of gaze in the image. The similar magnitude and temporal dynamics of response facilitation and eye deviation in monkeys and humans suggest shared neural circuitry mediating social attention.     

Monkeys head-gaze following is fast,precise and not fully suppressible

Human eye-gaze is a powerful stimulus, drawing the observer''s attention to places and objects of interest to someone else (‘eye-gaze following’). The largely homogeneous eyes of monkeys, compromising the assessment of eye-gaze by conspecifics from larger distances, explain the absence of comparable eye-gaze following in these animals. Yet, monkeys are able to use peer head orientation to shift attention (‘head-gaze following’). How similar are monkeys'' head-gaze and human eye-gaze following? To address this question, we trained rhesus monkeys to make saccades to targets, either identified by the head-gaze of demonstrator monkeys or, alternatively, identified by learned associations between the demonstrators'' facial identities and the targets (gaze versus identity following). In a variant of this task that occurred at random, the instruction to follow head-gaze or identity was replaced in the course of a trial by the new rule to detect a change of luminance of one of the saccade targets. Although this change-of-rule rendered the demonstrator portraits irrelevant, they nevertheless influenced performance, reflecting a precise redistribution of spatial attention. The specific features depended on whether the initial rule was head-gaze or identity following: head-gaze caused an insuppressible shift of attention to the target gazed at by the demonstrator, whereas identity matching prompted much later shifts of attention, however, only if the initial rule had been identity following. Furthermore, shifts of attention prompted by head-gaze were spatially precise. Automaticity and swiftness, spatial precision and limited executive control characterizing monkeys'' head-gaze following are key features of human eye-gaze following. This similarity supports the notion that both may rely on the same conserved neural circuitry.     

Intragroup and Intergroup Social Interactions in White-Handed Gibbons

One of the least studied aspects of the Hylobatidae is their social behavior. In the past, researchers have attributed this to a general lack of affiliative social interactions due to small group size and the hostile nature of intergroup encounters. Data collected on white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand, indicate that gibbons engage in higher rates of social behavior than had previously been appreciated. In addition to relatively high rates of intragroup social contact, gibbons engaged in social behavior, including play and grooming, with members of neighboring groups. These findings obligate a renewed consideration of the nature and function of territoriality in primates.     

Motion-guided attention promotes adaptive communications during social navigation

Animals are capable of enhanced decision making through cooperation, whereby accurate decisions can occur quickly through decentralized consensus. These interactions often depend upon reliable social cues, which can result in highly coordinated activities in uncertain environments. Yet information within a crowd may be lost in translation, generating confusion and enhancing individual risk. As quantitative data detailing animal social interactions accumulate, the mechanisms enabling individuals to rapidly and accurately process competing social cues remain unresolved. Here, we model how motion-guided attention influences the exchange of visual information during social navigation. We also compare the performance of this mechanism to the hypothesis that robust social coordination requires individuals to numerically limit their attention to a set of n-nearest neighbours. While we find that such numerically limited attention does not generate robust social navigation across ecological contexts, several notable qualities arise from selective attention to motion cues. First, individuals can instantly become a local information hub when startled into action, without requiring changes in neighbour attention level. Second, individuals can circumvent speed–accuracy trade-offs by tuning their motion thresholds. In turn, these properties enable groups to collectively dampen or amplify social information. Lastly, the minority required to sway a group''s short-term directional decisions can change substantially with social context. Our findings suggest that motion-guided attention is a fundamental and efficient mechanism underlying collaborative decision making during social navigation.     

Selective attention to philopatric models causes directed social learning in wild vervet monkeys

Human behaviour is often based on social learning, a mechanism that has been documented also in a variety of other vertebrates. However, social learning as a means of problem-solving may be optimal only under specific conditions, and both theoretical work and laboratory experiments highlight the importance of a potential model''s identity. Here we present the results from a social learning experiment on six wild vervet monkey groups, where models were either a dominant female or a dominant male. We presented ‘artificial fruit’ boxes that had doors on opposite, differently coloured ends for access to food. One option was blocked during the demonstration phase, creating consistent demonstrations of one possible solution. Following demonstrations we found a significantly higher participation rate and same-door manipulation in groups with female models compared to groups with male models. These differences appeared to be owing to selective attention of bystanders to female model behaviour rather than owing to female tolerance. Our results demonstrate the favoured role of dominant females as a source for ‘directed’ social learning in a species with female philopatry. Our findings imply that migration does not necessarily lead to an exchange of socially acquired information within populations, potentially causing highly localized traditions.     

Sleep quality,chronotype and social jetlag differentially associate with symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurobehavioural disorder which has been associated with sleep and circadian rhythm disturbances. Numerous studies have linked evening circadian typology with traits and behaviours associated with the disorder, although a precise reason for this relationship has not been clarified. The current study examines ADHD symptoms, impulsivity, cognitive failures, sleep quality and chronotype in a cohort of healthy young adults (N = 396). Results show significant, small magnitude associations between mid-point of sleep on free days, social jetlag (SJL) and ADHD symptoms and impulsivity, although not with cognitive failures. Similarly, sleep quality is also associated with ADHD symptoms and impulsivity. Group-wise approaches show that higher SJL is associated with significantly more ADHD symptoms and impulsivity, and later mid-sleep on free days is also associated with more ADHD symptoms. Stepwise multiple linear regression reveals that, when controlling for age and sex, SJL but not mid-sleep on free days is a significant predictor of ADHD symptoms and impulsivity. These results indicate that SJL may be an important factor to consider when exploring circadian rhythm associations with ADHD symptoms.     

线索有效性对社会性注意和外源性注意的影响

目的 眼睛注视、头朝向和生物运动方向等社会性线索,对人类的生存和社会交互极为重要.由于社会性线索和外周线索都具有反射性注意定向这一特点,社会性注意往往也被认为属于外源性注意.但是,外源性注意并不能完全解释所有的社会性注意现象.因此,两者是否具有相同的加工机制,尚存在争论.方法 本研究使用空间线索范式,系统考察了线索有效...     

The influence of predation risk on threat display in great tits

In wintering birds, conflicts over food are often resolved bythreat displays. For displays to be effective, there oughtto be a cost associated with displaying. We investigated whetherincreased vulnerability to predators due to reduced vigilancecould be such a cost. Conflicts ought then to be resolved usingfewer or less intense displays in conditions of high risk. We also looked for differences between dominants and subordinatesin their reaction to risk. Because there is considerable evidencethat subordinate wintering birds forage in riskier places thandominants, one might expect dominants to be less successfulin conflicts under high predation risk. In our experiment,nine flocks of four or five wintering male great tits were keptin outdoor aviaries. In the predation risk treatment, a stuffedpygmy owl was briefly shown before birds were allowed accessto a feeder. In the control treatment the owl did not appear.The predator presentation caused a reduction in the amountof aggression shown by subordinates, whereas for dominants there was no statistically significant change. Dominants were at leastas successful in subduing subordinates under high risk as underlow risk. A possible interpretation is that our experimentreflected a natural foraging situation for great tits, whereephemeral resources can appear unpredictably. In such situations,dominants may need to be bold to gain priority of access even under increased risk of predation, whereas a subordinate wouldgain little by risking a conflict with small chances of winning.     

Intergroup interactions in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus), Ghomaran Rif mountains,Morocco

Data are presented on intergroup interactions between six groups of Macaca sylvanus in the Ghomaran region of the Moroccan Rif mountains. Intergroup encounters (0.026/observation hour) were defined as two groups being near each other (< 150 m). Encounters were further classified into: 1) neutral (indeterminate) encounters, in which very little intergroup interaction took place, with the exception of male monitoring (N = 7); 2) approach-retreat encounters with intergroup displacement, in which, without any overt agonism, members of one group slowly approached another and caused it to retreat (N = 3); and 3) agonistic encounters with intergroup displacement (N = 3). These results are compared to the only other study of intergroup interactions in wild Barbary macaques, and it is concluded that 1) observations of intergroup unification and/or coordination of movement in Barbary macaques (“herding”) probably resulted from observer error, or if these phenomena do occur, they are rare throughout the range of this species; 2) approximately half of all intergroup encounters in both studies resulted in intergroup displacement and/or intergroup agonism, evidence of intergroup competition; and 3) current data on intergroup interactions in Barbary macaques conform to the predictions of Wrangham's model of mutually competitive female-bonded, multimale groups.     

New Cases of Intergroup Violence Among Chimpanzees in Gombe National Park,Tanzania

Despite considerable attention to chimpanzee intergroup violence, the number of observed cases remains small. We report 4 cases of intergroup violence that occurred in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, between 1993 and 2002. We observed (3 cases) or inferred (1 case) males from the Kasekela community to attack members of their 2 neighboring communities: Mitumba and Kalande. In 1993, Kasekela males killed and ate a female infant from Mitumba. In 1998, Kasekela males captured 2 infants (sex unknown) from Kalande, one of which escaped and the other was killed and eaten. Also in 1998, Kasekela males attacked an adolescent male from Kalande. The victim was alive but severely injured by the end of the attack. The intensity and duration of the attack are comparable to other attacks that resulted in fatal injuries. In 2002, observers found the body of an adolescent male from Mitumba following an incursion by Kasekela males into the area. The injuries inflicted on the Mitumba male together with circumstantial evidence suggest that Kasekela males killed him. The attacks support the view that intergroup violence is a persistent feature of chimpanzee societies and that the primary benefit attackers gain from them is reduced competition for resources.     

社会性注意的特异性认知神经机制

社会性注意对人类的社会交往甚至是生存发展都有至关重要的作用.近年来,研究者利用心理物理学实验范式(中央线索范式的变式)结合脑功能成像技术(ERP、f MRI、MEG等)以及神经心理学方法(脑损伤病人),系统探究了社会性注意在认知神经机制方面的特异性.社会线索(眼睛注视、头部朝向、生物运动行走方向)均能诱发独特的反射性注意定向效应,并且该注意效应在行为和神经层面上区别于非社会线索(箭头)诱发的注意效应.然而也有研究者对此提出质疑,因此有关社会性注意是否特异于非社会性注意仍然存在争议,有待进一步研究.社会性注意特异性认知神经机制的相关研究一方面能够为人类大脑中是否存在一个专门的"社会性注意探测器"提供证据,另一方面也为社会性注意在自闭症的早期诊断与干预中的应用提供实验依据,具有重要的理论意义和社会应用价值.