VISUAL ATTENTION SHIFTS CAUSED BY DIRECTION OF GAZE CUES

描述（改编自申请人的描述）：在正常过程中， 在生命的第一年结束时，人类婴儿 对成年人注视方向的变化作出反应， 就像看大人在看什么一样。 这种现象，众所周知 作为共同关注的对象， 通信 共同关注的不足也与以下因素有关： 自闭症 研究人员利用计算机显示的真实的面孔， 在试点工作中证明，3个月大的婴儿对 眼睛凝视，这会影响他们的定向行为， probes. 这项研究提案将在试点工作的基础上， 一组实验，以确定为什么定向到眼睛凝视是如此难以捉摸， 年幼的婴儿，分离的眼睛和头部运动的影响是什么， 最后，面部在注视监测中的背景作用是什么？

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's description): In the normal course of development at around the end of the first year of life, human infants respond to a change in an adult's alignment of gaze by turning in the same direction as if to see where the adult is looking. This phenomenon, known as joint attention, is believed to play an important role in referential communication. Deficits in joint attention have also been associated with autism. Using computerized displays of real faces, the investigators have demonstrated in pilot work that infants as young as 3 months are sensitive to eye gaze and that this influences their orienting behavior to peripheral probes. This research proposal will follow on from this pilot work with a set of experiments to determine why orienting to eye gaze is so elusive in young infants, what is the effect of dissociating eye and head movements, and, finally, what is the contextual role of the face in gaze monitoring?