The bigger your pupils, the better my comprehension: an ERP study of how pupil size and gaze of the speaker affect syntactic processing.

ABSTRACT: Gaze direction and pupil dilation play a critical role in communication and social interaction due to their ability to redirect and capture our attention and their relevance for emotional information. The present study aimed to explore whether the pupil size and gaze direction of the speaker affect language comprehension. Participants listened to sentences that could be correct or contain a syntactic anomaly, while the static face of a speaker was manipulated in terms of gaze direction (direct, averted) and pupil size (mydriasis, miosis). Left anterior negativity (LAN) and P600 linguistic event-related potential components were observed in response to syntactic anomalies across all conditions. The speaker's gaze did not impact syntactic comprehension. However, the amplitude of the LAN comp

SUBMITTER: Jimenez-Ortega L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11246839 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature