Attention modulates the processing of emotional expression triggered by foveal faces

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2005.10.002

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 394, Issue 1, 6 February 2006, Pages 48-52

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2005.10.002 Get rights and content

Abstract

To investigate whether the processing of emotional expression for faces presented within foveal vision is modulated by spatial attention, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in response to stimulus arrays containing one fearful or neutral face at fixation, which was flanked by a pair of peripheral bilateral lines. When attention was focused on the central face, an enhanced positivity was elicited by fearful as compared to neutral faces. This effect started at 160 ms post-stimulus, and remained present for the remainder of the 700 ms analysis interval. When attention was directed away from the face towards the line pair, the initial phase of this emotional positivity remained present, but emotional expression effects beyond 220 ms post-stimulus were completely eliminated. These results demonstrate that when faces are presented foveally, the initial rapid stage of emotional expression processing is unaffected by attention. In contrast, attentional task instructions are effective in inhibiting later, more controlled stages of expression analysis.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been supported by a grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), UK. The authors thank Heijo Van de Werf for technical assistance. M.E. holds a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award.

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Attention modulates the processing of emotional expression triggered by foveal faces

Abstract

Section snippets

Acknowledgements

Neuropsychologia

NeuroImage

Cogn. Brain Res.

Neuropsychologia

Curr. Opin. Neurobiol.

Cogn. Brain Res.

Neuron

Lesions of the human amygdala impair enhanced perception of emotionally salient events

Nature

Time course and specificity of event-related potentials to emotional expressions

Neuroreport