Eye contact established by a human partner has been shown to affect various cognitive processes of the receiver. However, little is known about humans’ responses to eye contact established by a humanoid robot. Here, we aimed at examining humans’ oscillatory brain response to eye contact with a humanoid robot. Eye contact (or lack thereof) was embedded in a gaze-cueing task and preceded the phase of gaze-related attentional orienting. In addition to examining the effect of eye contact on the recipient, we also tested its impact on gaze-cueing effects (GCEs). Results showed that participants rated eye contact as more engaging and responded with higher desynchronization of alpha-band activity in left fronto-central and central electrode clusters when the robot established eye contact with them, compared to no eye contact condition. However, eye contact did not modulate GCEs. The results are interpreted in terms of the functional roles involved in alpha central rhythms (potentially interpretable also as mu rhythm), including joint attention and engagement in social interaction.

中文翻译：

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与人形机器人联合注意时的眼神接触可调节大脑的振荡活动

由人类伴侣建立的眼神接触已被证明会影响接收者的各种认知过程。然而，人们对人形机器人建立的目光接触的反应知之甚少。在这里，我们旨在检查人类对与人形机器人眼神接触的大脑振荡反应。目光接触（或缺乏目光接触）嵌入在凝视提示任务中，并在与凝视相关的注意力定向阶段之前。除了检查目光接触对接受者的影响之外，我们还测试了它对凝视提示效应 (GCE) 的影响。结果表明，与没有目光接触的情况相比，当机器人与他们建立目光接触时，参与者认为目光接触更具吸引力，并且在左侧额中央和中央电极簇中的 alpha 波段活动的不同步性更高。然而，眼神接触并没有调节 GCE。结果根据 alpha 中枢节律（也可能解释为 mu 节律）所涉及的功能角色进行解释，包括共同关注和参与社交互动。