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Threat expectation does not improve perceptual discrimination despite causing heightened priority processing in the

Nadia Haddara1, Dobromir Rahnev1

  • 1School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.

Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|July 28, 2023
PubMed
Summary

Threat cues do not improve perceptual sensitivity, despite activating brain regions involved in threat processing. This challenges the idea that expecting danger automatically sharpens our senses.

Keywords:
classical/Pavlovian conditioningeffective connectivityexpectationfMRIfrontoparietal networkperceptual decision makingthreat perception

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Sensory Processing

Background:

  • Threat cues are known to increase neural processing in sensory and attentional brain networks.
  • It remains unclear if this neural enhancement translates to improved perceptual abilities.

Approach:

  • Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study brain activity in 46 participants.
  • Participants completed a cued perceptual decision-making task involving motion direction discrimination with threat, safe, or neutral cues.
  • Threat stimuli were created by pairing motion direction with an aversive sound.

Key Points:

  • Threat cues did not enhance perceptual sensitivity compared to safe or neutral cues.
  • Despite no perceptual improvement, threat cues led to increased frontoparietal blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activity.
  • Increased connectivity was observed between the right insula and the frontoparietal network.

Conclusions:

  • The expectation of threat does not automatically enhance perceptual decision-making ability.
  • The frontoparietal network plays a crucial role in prioritizing the processing of environmental threat cues.