Vitamin Eye: Some Looks Can Shift Lives

You know the feeling. Even if you've never thought about it, you recognize it: The physical surge of love at first sight. A proud glance by someone you admire. The warm gaze of a happy child. When your team is winning and you gleefully catch the eyes of other fans.

You actively and unguardedly seek out this eye contact. Even with strangers. It's an ancient, almost primitive, pleasure.

Our visual connection with others is important to us for more than just social reasons. The ways we use our eyes with people impact on our psychological and physical well-being. From instant to instant, our eyes function as floodgates: They let in some visuals, but not others, opening us to some perspectives, but shutting out the rest - all according to attention, interest, and a host of other variables.

Neuroscientists study what happens behind our eyes when we visually connect with others. Consider the parts of the brain associated with pleasure, like the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. Both are activated by what and who comes into our sightlines. Neurotransmitters connected with feelings of well-being, like serotonin and dopamine, are linked to receiving positive visuals. And neuropeptides like oxytocin are central to social recognition, attachment, and eye-to-eye contact. Even antibody production in our immune system fluctuates according to who we see. Our body's pleasure centers are stimulated by information from our eyes that is processed before we're even aware of it.

Much research focuses on the hypothalamus. Among its many vital functions, this structure regulates the body's physical reward system - feeling good as a result of experiencing something. Kampe's now-classic study using fMRI measurements established that a specific part of the hypothalamus - the ventral striatum - responds to the direction of other people's gaze behavior.

When volunteers viewed faces they found attractive, regardless of the person's gender, the ventral striatum showed activation. This is a region linked to the anticipation of reward which activates dopamine regions of the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with feelings of satisfaction and enjoyment. Conversely, pictures of attractive people with an averted gaze, elicited decreased activation in participants' ventral striatum.
In short: when we are looked at directly by someone we see as nice-looking, we feel good, and we feel less good when that person doesn't catch our eye. Highly active during social visual interactions, our brain's pleasure centers are turned on by our eyes in many different ways.

This sort of visual psychology resides in our shared positive eye connections. The mutual recognition that produces a sensational spark happens with people we don't know, and people we do. In much less time than in takes to tell it.

It's the vital human resource.

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Discussions around eye contact need to become bigger.
This blog will probe topics such as:
-eye candy and charisma
-mental health and microexpressions
-visual violence and cultural display
-ocular bonding and attention
-marketing strategy and visual activism
-creativity and visual altruism
-quantum vision and observer effects
-blindspots, the sense of being stared at, and evil eyes

Perhaps you have some ideas that you would like to see featured in the conversation. Please let me know.

Because some looks can shift lives.
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Reply here, or email: vitamineye@gmail.com