As a social signal, direction of gaze has been shown to be associated with motivational tendencies to approach and avoid. Direct gaze has been linked to approach tendency and positive affect, whereas averted gaze has been linked to avoidance tendency and negative affect. Studies have revealed important functional differences between the left and right frontal cortex in the processing of motivational and emotional stimuli, with the left frontal cortex showing greater responses to approach-related orientation and the right frontal cortex showing greater responses to avoidance-related orientation. The past research has generally investigated frontal EEG asymmetry in the context of emotion. The present study investigated frontal EEG asymmetry in response to faces with direct and averted gaze. As a control stimulus, a radio oriented straight or averted was included. The responses to the facial and control stimuli were investigated in two different conditions of presentation: live and on a computer screen. The participants’ subjective evaluations of emotional valence and arousal to the stimuli were also investigated. Based on earlier results, it was expected that greater left frontal activation would be obtained to direct gaze, and greater right frontal activation would be obtained to averted gaze. Furthermore, it was assumed that the differences in EEG responses between direct and averted gaze would be larger in the live than the computer condition. As expected, greater left frontal activation was obtained to direct gaze and greater right frontal activation was obtained to averted gaze in the live condition. Surprisingly, no effects were found in the computer condition. The finding is probably due to lack of social significance conveyed by pictures of faces. The control stimulus did not produce effects in the live or computer conditions. The evaluations of subjective experience revealed a significant effect in response to gaze direction in the live condition. Direct gaze was associated with lower levels of pleasantness and higher levels of arousal in contrast to averted gaze. Again, no effects were found in the computer condition. This applied also for the control stimulus on both conditions. The results demonstrate that direct and averted gaze triggers distinct patterns of neural activity in accordance with approach and avoidance motivational orientations. KEY WORDS: Gaze direction, EEG asymmetry, live stimulus, approach-avoidance motivation