When someone is asked a perplexing question, there's a good chance they will spontaneously shift their gaze - either upwards, or to the side.

This seemingly ubiquitous cross-cultural behaviour is currently unexplained.

A research project from 1998 suggested that :

(1) the frequency of gaze aversion is related to the difficulty of cognitive processing,
(2) this behavior cannot be due solely to demand characteristics or embarrassment, and
(3) the behavior is functional"

The research team's broad idea is that averting the gaze to a 'quiet zone' relieves the brain from some high-demand processing power.involved with decoding the complex visual field - allowing it to concentrate instead on the mental task at hand.

See : Averting the gaze disengages the environment and facilitates remembering Memory & Cognition, 26 (4),651-658

So-called Non-Visual Gaze Patterns (NVGPs) are also common when :

• Trying to calculate numerical problems
• Trying to remember words / facts etc.
• When fantasizing
• When listening to music
• Daydreaming
• etc. etc.

Gaze-shifting, however, remains "One of the least understood human cognitive behavioral phenomena." (ref.)

It's notable that research teams with specific interests tend to find explanations relevant to their interests :

For example :

• Mathematicians suggest that a person might be working through an imaginary calculation space
• Religious groups suggest that a person may be 'gazing towards heaven' for answers
• Linguists suggest they could be 'reading' across an invisible page
• Freudians might say a person is looking upwards for assistance from parents
• etc.

Note: Wikenigma has not been able to confirm when the first formal gaze-shifting research began.