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How Eye Contact Shapes Neural Dynamics of Face Memory

Poster Session E - Monday, March 9, 2026, 2:30 – 4:30 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Domilė Tautvydaitė¹ (), Sylvain Baillet; ¹McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University

The human face is arguably the most frequent visual stimulus we encounter, with eye gaze direction providing crucial social cues. Direct gaze (DG) captures attention more effectively than averted gaze (AG) and, essentially, enhances memory encoding and retrieval. The neural correlates underlying the link of memory enhancement and gaze direction remain unclear. One possible mechanism is that DG elicits holistic processing, fostering the formation of distinct, relational memory representations, consequently leading to a more accurate retrieval. To test this, we designed a magnetoencephalography (MEG) - adapted continuous recognition task, presenting neutral emotion faces with DG and left- or right- AG. Healthy adults (18-35 years) judged whether a test face matched the previously encoded probe face. The test face could be either identical (Match), the same identity with different gaze direction (Gaze Mismatch), or a different identity with a same gaze direction (ID Mismatch). Rapid Invisible Frequency Tagging (RIFT) at 68.5 Hz was applied to the eye region during Probe presentation to entrain rhythmic neural activity and localize the neural sources of the DG- versus AG-tagged signal. Pilot behavioural data from seven adults indicate that presenting the probe face with DG improves recognition in the ID Mismatch condition, but impairs recognition in Gaze Mismatch condition, with no effect in the Match condition. The MEG analyses so far reveal a trend in gaze-related differences during encoding and recognition, engaging networks associated with gaze and memory processing. We expect our findings to advance understanding of memory systems involved in face and gaze processing.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Person perception