Altered saccadic targets when processing facial expressions under different attentional and stimulus conditions

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Visual Perception

Background:

• Facial emotion perception is modulated by attentional bias.
• Facial blends, with differing emotions on the upper and lower face, reveal perceptual biases.
• Previous research indicates a bias towards the lower face unless attention is directed to the upper face.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if initial saccadic eye movements explain perceptual biases in facial blend recognition.
• To examine the relationship between attentional focus and saccadic behavior when viewing facial expressions.

Main Methods:

• Ten subjects viewed full and blend facial expressions under varying attentional conditions.
• Saccadic eye movements were recorded to assess visual scanning patterns.
• Participants were instructed to attend to specific facial regions or identify emotions.

Main Results:

• No significant saccadic differences were observed between visual fields or stimulus types (full vs. blend).
• Saccades were directed to the lower face when identifying emotions and to the upper face when instructed to attend to it.
• When asked to attend to the upper face and identify emotion, saccades shifted to the upper face, but to a lesser extent.

Conclusions:

• Saccadic behavior aligns with cognitive-attentional pre-attunements in facial expression processing.
• Saccadic targeting alone does not fully account for the left visual field's advantage in recognizing upper facial expressions in blends.
• Other perceptual factors, potentially including virtual scanning, may contribute to observed biases.