Baseline salivary cortisol levels and preconscious selective attention for threat. A pilot study

This study was conducted to examine the relationship between baseline salivary cortisol (CORT) levels and selective attention for displays of angry faces. Selective attention was investigated using a pictorial emotional Stroop task, comparing colournaming-speed of angry and neutral faces. The task was assessed in supraliminal (unmasked) and subliminal (masked) conditions to 28 non-clinical subjects (14 male and 14 female). Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed a significant interaction between median split CORT levels (low vs. high) and masked face valence (angry vs. neutral). The latter effect was mainly due to significant facilitation in the high CORT subject-group; these subjects seemed to allocate their attention away from the masked angry face. A relation between baseline CORT levels and fast withdrawal behavior is suggested.