The DOI matches its Crossref record; 49 of the 49 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 55 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.
Neurons in the Monkey Amygdala Detect Eye Contact during Naturalistic Social Interactions
Open accessAbstract
Summary Primates explore the visual world through eye-movement sequences. Saccades bring details of interest into the fovea while fixations stabilize the image [1]. During natural vision, social primates direct their gaze at the eyes of others to communicate their own emotions and intentions and to gather information about the mental states of others [2]. Direct gaze is an integral part of facial expressions that signals cooperation or conflict over resources and social status [3-6]. Despite the great importance of making and breaking eye contact in the behavioral repertoire of primates, little is known about the neural substrates that support these behaviors. Here we show that the monkey amygdala contains neurons that respond selectively to fixations at the eyes of others and to eye contact. These “eye cells” share several features with the canonical, visually responsive neurons in the monkey amygdala, however, they respond to the eyes only when they fall within the fovea of the viewer, either as a result of a deliberate saccade, or as eyes move into the fovea of the viewer during a fixation intended to explore a different feature. The presence of eyes in peripheral vision fails to activate the eye cells. These findings link the primate amygdala to eye-movements involved in the exploration and selection of details in visual scenes that contain socially and emotionally salient features.
Overview
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TL;DR
The monkey amygdala contains neurons that respond selectively when another monkey’s eyes fall in the fovea, including a subpopulation that distinguishes direct eye contact from averted gaze. These “eye cells” show nested selectivity with canonical visually responsive amygdala neurons and may support gaze-mediated social behavior.
Key findings
Of 318 well-isolated neurons, 38 (12%) significantly changed firing rate when subjects fixated the eyes of movie monkeys (Q: 8/104, 7.7%; Z: 27/171, 15.8%; G: 3/42, 7.1%); these cells did not respond, or responded less, to fixations on the mouth, and 14 additional cells responded to all fixations independent of target.
- A subpopulation of 10 eye-fixation cells fired significantly more during eye contact than during fixations on averted eyes; one example increased up to 76 Hz during eye contact versus a mean 10 Hz during averted-eye fixations, with a 5 Hz baseline. Two cells instead responded more to averted gaze (cell 1: 15.2 Hz vs. 7.7 Hz; cell 2: 12.0 Hz vs. 9.7 Hz).
- Eye cells responded only when eyes were in the fovea, not in peripheral vision; saccades were not necessary. Five eye-fixation cells responded similarly after saccades to the eyes and passive appearance of eyes at fixation (latency 121±27 ms vs. 133±74 ms; t3=−0.574, P=0.697).
- Eye cells appear to be a specialized class of visually responsive amygdala neurons: 248/318 (78%) responded to video onset/offset, all 52 fixation cells responded to visual stimuli, and 52/248 (21%) of visually responsive cells also responded to eye fixations.
Methods
Recorded neuronal activity from the amygdalae of three monkeys (Q, Z, G) while they viewed videos of natural behaviors by unfamiliar conspecifics; two subjects also viewed static frames extracted from each video.
- Identified fixations on facial features and periods of eye contact by combining the viewer’s scanpath with an ethogram marking the movie monkey’s gaze direction.
- Main analyses included Wilcoxon rank-sum tests for fixation-related firing changes, bootstrap shuffling of the movie-monkey ethogram for eye-contact selectivity, t-tests/chi-square comparisons, and histology/recording-site reconstruction; additional paradigms tested static images and cue-triggered face presentation with eyes at the fovea or >4° from center.
Limitations
Stated: the design precluded analyses of higher-order levels such as eye contact during appeasing or affiliative interactions, or eye contact with a friend versus a foe; the authors also note that a more complete answer on eye-contact cells is expected from a larger population.
- Evident: key subpopulations were small—10 eye-contact cells, only 2 eye-contact cells tested with static images, 5 eye-fixation cells in the passive-viewing paradigm, and 3 nonselective-fixation cells—limiting generalizability.
- Evident: the study is recording-based and does not causally manipulate eye cells; the authors state that future studies blocking or enhancing eye-cell activity are needed.
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30 Own result · 18 Not checked yet · 5 Own interpretation · 1 No basis given
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“They spent significantly less time fixating the mouth: Chi-squared test comparing the percent of time that the eyes or mouth were fixated, P <0.00001”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Results
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“they respond to the eyes only when they fall within the fovea of the viewer, either as a result of a deliberate saccade, or as eyes move into the fovea of the viewer during a fixation intended to explore a different feature.”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Abstract
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In the paper
“The presence of eyes in peripheral vision fails to activate the eye cells.”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Abstract
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Here we show that the monkey amygdala contains neurons that respond selectively to fixations at the eyes of others and to eye contact.”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Abstract
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“These “eye cells” share several features with the canonical, visually responsive neurons in the monkey amygdala”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Abstract
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“even though the eyes occupied only 2.6% of the video frames, monkeys Q, Z, and G spent 39.1%, 26.8%, and 17.2% fixating them.”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Results
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [7] Keating, 1982, Visual scan patterns of rhesus monkeys viewing faces, Perception source
- Not checked yetcites [8] Nahm, 1997, How do monkeys look at faces?, J. Cogn. Neurosci. source
- Not checked yetcites [9] Parr, 2000, Recognizing facial cues: individual discrimination by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), J. Comp. Psychol. source
- Not checked yetcites [10] Gibboni, 2009, Individual differences in Scanpaths correspond with serotonin transporter genotype and behavioral phenotype in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), Front. Behav. Neurosci. source
- Not checked yetcites [11] Payne, 2013, Crossmodal integration of conspecific vocalizations in rhesus macaques, PLoS ONE source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Indeed, the eye-contact selective cells increased their firing rate when the movie monkey changed its direction of gaze from averted to direct while the viewer fixated the eyes (e.g., Figure 3B and 3D at 3.3 s and 3.5 s, respectively).”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > (2) Can eye-fixation cells be activated in the absence of saccades?
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The average activity of all 318 recorded cells indicates that the population responded more strongly during fixations on the eyes than during fixations on other features (Figure S1 B, bottom panel).”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Neurons in the amygdala respond to fixations at the eyes
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The high sensitivity to eye-contact is illustrated by an increase of up to a 76 Hz firing rate during eye-contact compared to a mean rate of 10 Hz during fixations on averted eyes for a neuron with a baseline firing rate of 5 Hz (Figure 3, Movie S3).”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > A subpopulation of eye-fixation cells respond to eye contact
plaindirectSingle case- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“By comparison, three nonselective-fixation cells were tested in this paradigm and these responded similarly to the appearance of any feature at the center of the gaze (Figure S3 E) (t-test comparing mean firing rate, t2=1.512, P=0.135).”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > (2) Can eye-fixation cells be activated in the absence of saccades?
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- It may state two separate claims as one. 12
- Probably not a substantial claim. 11
In the paper
“The response latency of the eye fixation cells varied between 80-140 ms with a mean latency of 118±29 ms, which is shorter than the response latency of canonical visually-driven cells in the amygdala (mean response latency to the presentation of visual stimuli: 157±58 ms, paired t-test t56=3.3299, P=0.0015; previously reported latencies of visually-responsive neurons in the amygdala exceed 100 ms”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Neurons in the amygdala respond to fixations at the eyes
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [e.g., 21-24]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“All five eye-fixation cells responded similarly after saccades to the eyes and the appearance of eyes at the center of fixation (Figure S3 B-D) indicating that saccades are not a sine qua non requirement for the activity of eye cells.”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > (2) Can eye-fixation cells be activated in the absence of saccades?
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The response patterns registered during fixation at the eyes were: (1) tonic excitation spanning the entire duration of fixations at the eyes (Figure 2B), (2) phasic excitation with an average duration of 120±42 ms (Figure 2C), and (3) phasic inhibition (Figure 2D).”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Neurons in the amygdala respond to fixations at the eyes
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“All 52 identified fixation cells (38 eye fixation cells and 14 non-selective fixation cells), responded to the appearance of visual stimuli on the monitor and the presence of eyes in the fovea (i.e., 52/248, 21%, of the visually responsive cells also responded to fixations on the eyes; Figure S4).”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > (3) Eye cells are a specialized class of the canonical visually-responsive neurons in the amygdala
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Direct gaze is an integral part of facial expressions that signals cooperation or conflict over resources and social status [3-6].”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [3] Maestripieri, 1997, Affiliative and submissive communication in rhesus macaques, Primates source
- Not checked yetcites [4] Redican, 1975, Facial expressions in nonhuman primates
- Not checked yetcites [5] Gomez, 1996, Ostensive behavior in great apes: the role of eye contact
- Not checked yetcites [6] Baron-Cohen, 1992, Reading the eyes: evidence for the role of perception in the development of a theory of mind, Mind Lang. source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“During natural vision, social primates direct their gaze at the eyes of others to communicate their own emotions and intentions and to gather information about the mental states of others [2].”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [2] Emery, 2000, The eyes have it: the neuroethology, function and evolution of social gaze, Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
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In the paper
“We have previously shown that videos promote interactive looking behaviors, e.g., eye contact, gaze-following, gaze-avoidance, and the reciprocation of facial expressions [12-17] as they better approximate natural interactions [18-20].”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Results
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [12] Capitanio, 2002, Sociability and responses to video playbacks in adult male rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), Primates source
- Not checked yetcites [13] Ghazanfar, 2006, Eye movements of monkey observers viewing vocalizing conspecifics, Cognition source
- Not checked yetcites [14] Paukner, 2006, Video-induced yawning in stumptail macaques (Macaca arctoides), Biol. Lett. source
- Not checked yetcites [15] Machado, 2011, Social and nonsocial content differentially modulates visual attention and autonomic arousal in Rhesus macaques, PLoS ONE source
- Not checked yetcites [16] Feneran, 2013, Monkey see, monkey do: contagious itch in nonhuman primates, Acta Derm. Venereol. source
- Not checked yetcites [17] Mosher, 2011, Videos of conspecifics elicit interactive looking patterns and facial expressions in monkeys, Behav. Neurosci. source
- Not checked yetcites [18] Chang, 2013, Neuronal reference frames for social decisions in primate frontal cortex, Nat. Neurosci. source
- Not checked yetcites [19] Livneh, 2012, Self-monitoring of social facial expressions in the primate amygdala and cingulate cortex, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA source
- Not checked yetcites [20] Caruana, 2011, Emotional and social behaviors elicited by electrical stimulation of the insula in the macaque monkey, Curr. Biol. source
boosteddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Thus the primary response of these cells signals the presence of videos while the secondary and tertiary response signals fixations at eyes and eye contact, respectively, in a pattern of nested selectivity.”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > (3) Eye cells are a specialized class of the canonical visually-responsive neurons in the amygdala
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Many visually-responsive neurons in the monkey amygdala respond to the onset or offset of visual stimuli (phasic image-on/image-off cells) or to the entire time an image is presented (tonic responses) [21-25].”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > (3) Eye cells are a specialized class of the canonical visually-responsive neurons in the amygdala
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [21] Sanghera, 1979, Visual responses of neurons in the dorsolateral amygdala of the alert monkey, Exp. Neurol. source
- Not checked yetcites [22] Leonard, 1985, Neurons in the amygdala of the monkey with responses selective for faces, Behav. Brain Res. source
- Not checked yetcites [23] Nakamura, 1992, Activity of single neurons in the monkey amygdala during performance of a visual discrimination task, J. Neurophysiol. source
- Not checked yetcites [24] Gothard, 2007, Neural responses to facial expression and face identity in the monkey amygdala, J. Neurophysiol. source
- Not checked yetcites [25] Mosher, 2010, Response characteristics of basolateral and centromedial neurons in the primate amygdala, J. Neurosci. source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim.
In the paper
“These identity-selective cells further differentiate between the facial expressions of that particular individual (see Figure 5 in [24]).”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Discussion
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [24] Gothard, 2007, Neural responses to facial expression and face identity in the monkey amygdala, J. Neurophysiol. source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“Indeed, our 2007 report on the selectivity of amygdala neurons [24] shows that the vast majority of neurons in the amygdala are category selective, responding differentially to monkey faces, human faces, and objects.”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Discussion
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [24] Gothard, 2007, Neural responses to facial expression and face identity in the monkey amygdala, J. Neurophysiol. source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“Face-selective cells show additional selectivity for individuals.”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Discussion
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [24] Gothard, 2007, Neural responses to facial expression and face identity in the monkey amygdala, J. Neurophysiol. source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Because the timing of fixations and saccades is inconsistent across trials, and averaging the spike trains across trials eliminated the chance to observe these short-lived fixation-related changes of firing rates.”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Discussion
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“A confident, dominant monkey initiates eye contact by staring at the eyes of others and waiting for the targeted eyes to return direct gaze; submissive individuals might engage briefly in eye contact or may choose to avoid it altogether [3,4,37].”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Discussion
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [3] Maestripieri, 1997, Affiliative and submissive communication in rhesus macaques, Primates source
- Not checked yetcites [4] Redican, 1975, Facial expressions in nonhuman primates
- Not checked yetcites [37] Chance, 1967, Attention structure as the basis of primate rank orders, Man (Lond)
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Neurons in TE, however, exhibit heightened sensitivity for details that fall within the fovea [32-34].”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Discussion
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [32] Moran, 1985, Selective attention gates visual processing in the extrastriate cortex, Science source
- Not checked yetcites [33] Rolls, 1995, The responses of single neurons in the temporal visual cortical areas of the macaque when more than one stimulus is present in the receptive field, Exp. Brain Res. source
- Not checked yetcites [34] Rolls, 2003, The receptive fields of inferior temporal cortex neurons in natural scenes, J. Neurosci. source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The idea that, in the amygdala, the most socially salient stimuli elicit the highest firing rates holds true: at the population level neurons that signal eye contact elicit the highest firing rates, similarly to threatening faces that elicited higher firing rates than neutral and appeasing expressions.”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Discussion
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Recent reports on the spatial-selectivity of neurons recorded from the amygdala [35] suggest neurons therein carry spatial information about the location of rewards, albeit the spatial scale might be too coarse for differentiating between foveal and peripheral presence of eyes.”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Discussion
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [35] Peck, 2013, The primate amygdala combines information about space and value, Nat. Neurosci. source
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“In humans, the majority of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders show disruption in the use of eyes and eye contact during social interactions [38-42].”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Discussion
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [38] Jones, 2013, Attention to eyes is present but in decline in 2-6-month-old infants later diagnosed with autism, Nature source
- Not checked yetcites [39] Rice, 2012, Parsing heterogeneity in autism spectrum disorders: visual scanning of dynamic social scenes in school-aged children, J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry source
- Not checked yetcites [40] Hirstein, 2001, Autonomic responses of autistic children to people and objects, Proc. Biol. Sci. source
- Not checked yetcites [41] Tso, 2012, Eye-contact perception in schizophrenia: relationship with symptoms and socioemotional functioning, J. Abnorm. Psychol. source
- Not checked yetcites [42] Schneier, 2011, Fear and avoidance of eye contact in social anxiety disorder, Compr. Psychiatry source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Retinotopy is unlikely when considering the gradual expansion of visual receptive fields along the ventral visual pathway [26]; indeed the receptive fields in areas that project to the amygdala, e.g. area TE [27,28], are large enough to encompass an entire hemifield [29-31].”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Discussion
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [26] Desimone, 1989, Neural mechanisms of visual processing in monkeys
- Not checked yetcites [27] Herzog, 1976, Temporal neocortical afferent connections to the amygdala in the rhesus monkey, Brain Res. source
- Not checked yetcites [28] Amaral, 1984, Amygdalo-cortical projections in the monkey (Macaca fascicularis), J. Comp. Neurol. source
- Not checked yetcites [29] Gross, 1969, Visual receptive fields of neurons in inferotemporal cortex of the monkey, Science source
- Not checked yetcites [30] Boussaoud, 1991, Visual topography of area TEO in the macaque, J. Comp. Neurol. source
- Not checked yetcites [31] Freiwald, 2010, Functional compartmentalization and viewpoint generalization within the macaque face-processing system, Science source
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“For example, patients on the autism spectrum typically fail to solicit and reciprocate eye contact [40,43-45].”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > Discussion
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [40] Hirstein, 2001, Autonomic responses of autistic children to people and objects, Proc. Biol. Sci. source
- Not checked yetcites [43] Kliemann, 2012, The role of the amygdala in atypical gaze on emotional faces in autism spectrum disorders, J. Neurosci. source
- Not checked yetcites [44] Tanaka, 2013, The “Eye Avoidance” Hypothesis of Autism Face Processing, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [45] Rutishauser, 2013, Single-neuron correlates of atypical face processing in autism, Neuron source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
The paper relies on this without support.
Little is known about the neural substrates that support making and breaking eye contact in primates.
“Despite the great importance of making and breaking eye contact in the behavioral repertoire of primates, little is known about the neural substrates that support these behaviors.”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“This is consistent with studies showing that the amygdala plays a critical role in allocating attention to other people 7 and in integrating social information 42 and social emotions 13 into decision-making.”
From Oxytocin modulates social value representations in the amygdala (2019) · cites this paper as [42]
Statistics recomputed
Every reported test result, recomputed from its test statistic and degrees of freedom. A result shows as not adding up only once an independent check has confirmed it.
- Consistentz = 6.451reported p < .0001 · recomputed p < .001
“z=6.451, p < .0001”
- Consistentz = 5.655reported p < .0001 · recomputed p < .001
“z=5.655, p < .0001”
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.
Rated major: it would touch a result — a value a result rests on, reported and recomputed p-values on opposite sides of the significance level, two passages that conflict with no sign which is right, or a cited work retracted before this paper was published.
In the paper
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > A subpopulation of eye-fixation cells respond to eye contact
“two cells responded with significantly greater firing rates during fixations on eyes with averted gaze”
§ Neurons in the monkey amygdala detect eye-contact during naturalistic social interactions > A subpopulation of eye-fixation cells respond to eye contact
“mean rate during eye contact and during fixations on averted eyes: cell 1: 15.2 Hz, 7.7 Hz; cell 2: 12.0 Hz, 9.7 Hz”
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“Recent studies in NHP have begun using combinations of these approaches, such as eye tracking, social viewing tasks and sitespecific neural recordings, to better understand nonhuman primate social cognition (82) and the function of OT in the NHP brain (83).”
BackgroundMethod
Metadata
- Authors
- Mosher, C. P., Zimmerman, P. E., & Gothard, K. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Arizona (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gothard, Katalin M.
- Venue
- Current Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-10
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 20
- Pages
- 2459-2464
- ISSN
- 0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4253056
- OpenAlex
- W2111767565
- Semantic Scholar
- 043aba83b5227e481c022e28be373a179d29e6e9
- Cited by
- 154
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 7.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- UA Campus Repository (The University of Arizona) (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Public Health Service (R21086065)
- National Institute of Mental Health (P50MH100023, R21MH086065)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Keywords
- eye contact, amygdala, saccades, fixation, fovea, social cognition, primate social behavior, naturalistic social interaction, rhesus monkeys, theory of mind, facial expressions, social communication, visual stability
- MeSH terms
- Amygdala, Animals, Haplorhini, Behavior, Animal, Face, Neurons, Social Behavior, Video Recording, Visual Perception
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-09, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).
A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-09 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
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