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Published on: November 16, 2017
Dynamics of emotional effects on spatial attention in the human visual cortex
Gilles Pourtois1, Patrik Vuilleumier
1Neurology & Imaging of Cognition, Clinic of Neurology, University Hospital & Department of Neurosciences, University Medical Center, University of Geneva, Switzerland. gilles.pourtois@medecine.unige.ch
Progress in Brain Research
|October 4, 2006
Summary
Threatening stimuli rapidly capture spatial attention. Brain imaging reveals that fearful faces, unlike happy ones, engage parietal and visual cortex, influencing attention allocation for survival. This highlights threat
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psychophysiology
Background:
- Efficient threat detection is vital for survival, necessitating focused attentional resources on potential dangers.
- Neuroimaging studies are elucidating the neural mechanisms behind reflexive spatial attention prioritization toward threat cues.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the spatio-temporal dynamics of attentional orienting using emotional face cues (fearful vs. happy).
- To examine how threat-related stimuli modulate spatial attention via event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Main Methods:
- Utilized a dot-probe paradigm with fearful and happy face cues preceding visual targets.
- Employed event-related potentials (ERPs) to assess early neural responses (40-150 ms) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for broader brain activity.
Main Results:
- Fearful faces, compared to happy faces, biased spatial attention, enhancing early visual P1 activity in extrastriate cortex for validly cued targets.
- Neural activity in posterior parietal regions (40-80 ms) preceded extrastriate cortex modulation (130-150 ms), suggesting top-down attentional control.
- fMRI revealed increased occipital cortex activity and decreased intraparietal cortex activity for invalid fearful face cues, indicating attention capture and difficulty disengaging.
Conclusions:
- Threat acts as a potent exogenous cue, triggering reflexive spatial attention shifts via rapid neural events in parietal and temporo-occipital areas.
- Distinct neural substrates underlie attention engagement (extrastriate occipital) and disengagement (intraparietal cortex) costs related to threat.
- Emotional threat signals play a critical role in modulating spatial attention, facilitating flexible perception and action for survival.
