HOW DO MONKEYS LOOK AT FACES

Facial displays are an important form of social communication in nonhu man primates. Clues to the information conveyed by faces are the tempo ral and spatial characteristics of ocular viewing patterns to facial i mages. The present study compares viewing patterns of four rhesus monk eys (Macaca mulatta) to a set of 1- and 3-sec video segments of conspe cific facial displays, which included open-mouth threat, lip-smack, ya wn, fear-grimace, and neutral profile. Both static and dynamic video i mages were used. Static human faces displaying open-mouth threat, smil e, and neutral gestures were also presented. Eye position was recorded with a surgically implanted eye-coil. The relative perceptual salienc e of the eyes, the midface, and the mouth across different expressive gestures was determined by analyzing the number of eye movements assoc iated with each feature during static and dynamic presentations. The r esults indicate that motion does not significantly affect the viewing patterns to expressive facial displays, and when given a choice, monke ys spend a relatively large amount of time inspecting the face, especi ally the eyes, as opposed to areas surrounding the face. The expressiv e nature of the facial display also affected viewing patterns in that threatening and fear-related displays evoked a pattern of viewing that differed from that recorded during the presentation of submissive-rel ated facial displays. From these results we conclude that (1) the most important determinant of the visual inspection patterns of faces is t he constellation of physiognomic features and their configuration, but not facial motion, (2) the eyes are generally the most salient facial feature, and (3) the agonistic or affiliative dimension of an express ive facial display can be delineated on the basis of viewing patterns.