How Does Wearing a Facecover Influence the Eye Movement Pattern in Times of COVID-19?

Abstract

Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic facecovers have become a common sight. The effect of facecovers on the gaze when looking at faces has not yet been assessed. The aim of the present study was to investigate any potential differences in eye movement pattern in observers exposed to images showing a face without and with a facecover to identify if there is truly a change of gaze when identifying (masked) facial features. The eye movement of 64 study participants (28 males and 36 females) with a mean [standard deviation] age of 31.84 [9.0] years was analyzed in this cross-sectional observational study. Eye movement analysis was conducted based on positional changes of eye features within an x- and y-coordinate system while two images (face without/with facecover) were displayed for 8 seconds. The results of this study revealed that the sequence of focusing on facial regions was not altered when wearing a facecover and followed the sequence: perioral, nose, periorbital. Wearing a facecover significantly increased the time spent focusing on the periorbital region and also increased the number of repeated eye fixations during the 8-second visual stimulus presentation. No statistically significant differences were observed between male and female participants in their eye movement pattern across all investigated variables (P > 0.433). The altered eye movement pattern caused by wearing facecoverings that this study has revealed suggests that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, aesthetic practitioners might consider developing marketing and treatment strategies that principally target the periorbital area.