Visual elements of subjective preference modulate amygdala activation

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.03.008

Neuropsychologia

Volume 45, Issue 10, 2007, Pages 2191-2200

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.03.008 Get rights and content

Abstract

What are the basic visual cues that determine our preference towards mundane everyday objects? We previously showed that a highly potent cue is the nature of the object's contour: people generally like objects with a curved contour compared with objects that have pointed features and a sharp-angled contour. This bias is hypothesized here to stem from an implicit perception of potential threat conveyed by sharp elements. Using human neuroimaging to test this hypothesis, we report that the amygdala, a brain structure that is involved in fear processing and has been shown to exhibit activation level that is proportional to arousal in general, is significantly more active for everyday sharp objects (e.g., a sofa with sharp corners) compared with their curved contour counterparts. Therefore, our results indicate that a preference bias towards a visual object can be induced by low-level perceptual properties, independent of semantic meaning, via visual elements that on some level could be associated with threat. We further present behavioral results that provide initial support for the link between the sharpness of the contour and threat perception. Our brains might be organized to extract these basic contour elements rapidly for deriving an early warning signal in the presence of potential danger.

Section snippets

Participants and design

We collected 140 pairs of real objects and 140 pairs of novel meaningless patterns for which the critical difference between the items in each pair was the curvature of their contour, keeping their semantic meaning and general appearance equated (Fig. 1). These were everyday objects whose semantic meaning had no inherent positive or negative valence (e.g., a plant or a chair). The novel patterns provided a further measure for the possible role of semantic meaning, familiarity and associations

Experiment 2: Low spatial frequencies mediate contour-driven preferences

In this experiment, we tested directly our hypothesis that the aspects of the contour that are critical for this type of preference formation are conveyed primarily by the LSFs in the image. We preceded this experiment with a pilot study, where we wanted to verify that the amount of low and high spatial filtering we employed would create sets of LSF and HSF images that are equally recognizable. By using an equated set of images, we ensure that the differences we might observe are not

Experiment 3: Subjective ratings of threat for sharp and curve contours

Experiments 1 and 2, while providing critical support for our hypotheses, do not provide a direct link between contour type and an actual perception of threat; so far we primarily inferred it from the combined decrease in preference and increase in amygdala activation. But amygdala activation could be observed for emotions other than fear, and we decided to test the direct link in a separate behavioral experiment.

Discussion

A critical influence on our preference for objects in the environment is exerted by basic visual elements - whether the contour is curved or sharp (Bar & Neta, 2006). We hypothesized that the bias towards liking sharp-angled objects significantly less than curved objects stems from an elevated perception of threat conveyed by sharp object features, either implicitly or explicitly. To test this hypothesis, we used objects whose semantic meaning is emotionally neutral, and compared amygdala

Acknowledgements

We thank K. Kveraga for programming tools used for filtering stimuli, as well as those used for both the recording and collection of voice responses to the filtered images used in the pilot for Experiment 3. We also thank E. Aminoff, M. Fenske, N. Gronau, M. Vangel, P. Whalen, and G. Wolford for helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the James S. McDonnell Foundation #21002039, NINDS R01 NS044319 and NS050615, the MIND Institute, and resource support by #5P41RR014075.

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View full text

Visual elements of subjective preference modulate amygdala activation

Abstract

Section snippets

Participants and design

Experiment 2: Low spatial frequencies mediate contour-driven preferences

Experiment 3: Subjective ratings of threat for sharp and curve contours

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Neuropsychologia

Advances in Experimental Social Psychology

Neuron

Neuron

Brain Research Reviews

Computers and Biomedical Research

NeuroImage

International Journal of Psychophysiology

Psychiatry Research

Neuropsychologia

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Brain Research Reviews

A cortical mechanism for triggering top-down facilitation in visual object recognition

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Top-down facilitation of visual recognition

Proceedings of the National Academy of Science

Humans prefer curved visual objects

Psychological Science

Very first impressions

Emotion