'You looking at me? You looking at me?'

Humans, but not other primates, have the ability of making

inferences about another individual’s state of mind (Premack

and Woodruff, 1978). 

Determination of the direction of the

other person’s gaze is essential for such inferences, as is the

observation of another person’s eyes for the judgment of his

mental state.Social contact often initially depends on ascertaining the

direction of the other person’s gaze. 

Neuroimaging studies done have determined the

brain areas involved in gaze monitoring. /

Discrimination between the direction

of gaze significantly activated a region in the left amygdala

during eye-contact and no eye-contact tasks to the same

extent. 

However, a region in the right amygdala wa

specifically activated only during the eye-contact task.

Results confirm that the left amygdala plays a general

role in the interpretation of eye gaze direction, and that

the activity of the right amygdala of the subject increases

when another individual’s gaze is directed towards him.

This suggests that the human amygdala plays a role in

reading social signals from the face.

Brain: Amygdala
Location of the amygdala in the human