Looking at someone's eyes is thought to be important for affective theory of mind (aTOM), our ability to infer their emotional state. However, it is unknown whether an individual's gaze direction influences our aTOM judgements and what the time course of this influence might be. We presented participants with sentences describing individuals in positive, negative or neutral scenarios, followed by direct or averted gaze neutral face pictures of those individuals. Participants made aTOM judgements about each person's mental state, including their affective valence and arousal, and we investigated whether the face gaze direction impacted those judgements. Participants rated that gazers were feeling more positive when they displayed direct gaze as opposed to averted gaze, and that they were feeling more aroused during negative contexts when gaze was averted as opposed to direct. Event-related potentials associated with face perception and affective processing were examined using mass-univariate analyses to track the time-course of this eye-gaze and affective processing interaction at a neural level. Both positive and negative trials were differentiated from neutral trials at many stages of processing. This included the early N200 and EPN components, believed to reflect automatic emotion areas activation and attentional selection respectively. This also included the later P300 and LPP components, thought to reflect elaborative cognitive appraisal of emotional content. Critically, sentence valence and gaze direction interacted over these later components, which may reflect the incorporation of eye-gaze in the cognitive evaluation of another's emotional state. The results suggest that gaze perception directly impacts aTOM processes, and that altered eye-gaze processing in clinical populations may contribute to associated aTOM impairments.

看着某人的眼睛被认为对于心理情感理论 (aTOM) 很重要，我们推断他们的情绪状态的能力。然而，一个人的注视方向是否会影响我们的 aTOM 判断以及这种影响的时间过程可能是什么尚不清楚。我们向参与者展示了描述正面、负面或中性情景中的个体的句子，然后是这些个体的直接或回避凝视中性面部图片。参与者对每个人的精神状态做出 aTOM 判断，包括他们的情感效价和唤醒，我们调查了面部凝视方向是否影响了这些判断。参与者认为，当凝视者表现出直接凝视而不是回避凝视时，他们会感觉更积极，并且他们在消极语境中感到更加兴奋，当目光被避开而不是直接时。使用大规模单变量分析来检查与面部知觉和情感处理相关的事件相关电位，以在神经层面跟踪这种眼睛凝视和情感处理交互的时间过程。在处理的许多阶段，阳性和阴性试验都与中性试验区分开来。这包括早期的 N200 和 EPN 组件，据信分别反映了自动情绪区域激活和注意力选择。这也包括后来的 P300 和 LPP 组件，被认为反映了对情感内容的精细认知评估。关键的是，句子效价和注视方向在这些后面的组件上相互作用，这可能反映了眼睛注视在对他人情绪状态的认知评估中的结合。结果表明凝视感知直接影响 aTOM 过程，临床人群中眼睛凝视处理的改变可能导致相关的 aTOM 损伤。