Theta resting EEG in TPJ/pSTS is associated with individual differences in the feeling of being looked at

Gianotti, Lorena R. R.; Lobmaier, Janek S.; Calluso, Cinzia; Dahinden, Franziska M.; Knoch, Daria (2018). Theta resting EEG in TPJ/pSTS is associated with individual differences in the feeling of being looked at. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 13(2), pp. 216-223. Oxford University Press 10.1093/scan/nsx143

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Direct eye gaze is a powerful stimulus in social interactions, yet people vary considerably in the range of gaze lines that they accept as being direct (cone of direct gaze, CoDG). Here, we searched for a possible neural trait marker of these individual differences. We measured the width of the CoDG in 137 healthy participants and related their individual CoDG to their neural baseline activation as measured with resting electroencephalogram. Using a source-localization technique, we found that resting theta current density in the left temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) and adjacent posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) was associated with the width of CoDG. Our findings suggest that the higher the baseline cortical activation in the left TPJ/pSTS, the wider the CoDG and thus the more liberal the individuals’ judgments were in deciding whether a looker stimulus was making eye contact or not. This is a first demonstration of the neural signatures underlying individual differences in the feeling of being looked at.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology

UniBE Contributor:

Gianotti, Lorena, Lobmaier, Janek Simon, Calluso, Cinzia, Dahinden, Franziska Maria, Knoch, Daria

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology

ISSN:

1749-5024

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

Language:

English

Submitter:

Lorena Gianotti

Date Deposited:

22 Mar 2018 15:13

Last Modified:

02 Mar 2023 23:30

Publisher DOI:

10.1093/scan/nsx143

PubMed ID:

29228358

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.108445

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/108445

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