“'There are strong robust signals in the brain that are signatures of an interactive social gaze,' says Steve Chang, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Yale University, a member of the Wu-Tsai Institute and the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, and the senior author of the study."

"They found that specific sets of socially tuned neurons fired across multiple brain regions at different times during mutual eye contact. For instance, one set of neurons fired when one individual initiated mutual eye contact, but not when that individual followed the other’s gaze. Another set of neurons were active when the monkeys were in the process of deciding whether to complete mutual eye contact initiated by the other. And interestingly, when fixing a gaze onto another individual some neurons marked the distance relative to another’s eyes, but when receiving a gaze yet another set of neurons signaled how close the other individual was.

"The brain regions in which neuronal activation took place provided hints into how the brain assesses the meaning of the gaze. Surprisingly, part of the network activated during social gaze interaction included the prefrontal cortex, the seat of higher-order learning and decision-making, as well as the amygdala, the center for emotion and valuation."

“Multiple regions within the prefrontal cortex, in addition to the amygdala, are recruited to compute selective aspects of interactive social gaze, suggesting the importance of a more contemplative role during social gaze interaction..."The fact that interactive social gaze neurons are found widely in the brain also speaks to the ethological importance of social gaze interaction,' Chang says." - Bill Hathaway-Yale

Article: When Eyes Meet, Brains Get to Work