Humans but Not Chimpanzees Vary Face-Scanning Patterns Depending on Contexts during Action Observation.

ABSTRACT: Human and nonhuman primates comprehend the actions of other individuals by detecting social cues, including others' goal-directed motor actions and faces. However, little is known about how this information is integrated with action understanding. Here, we present the ontogenetic and evolutionary foundations of this capacity by comparing face-scanning patterns of chimpanzees and humans as they viewed goal-directed human actions within contexts that differ in whether or not the predicted goal is achieved. Human adults and children attend to the actor's face during action sequences, and this tendency is particularly pronounced in adults when observing that the predicted goal is not achieved. Chimpanzees rarely attend to the actor's face during the goal-directed action, regardless of whether

SUBMITTER: Myowa-Yamakoshi M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4633149 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature