Abstract
Fluctuations in mental and bodily states have both been shown to be associated with negative affective experience. Here we examined how momentary fluctuations in attentional and cardiac states combine to regulate the perception of positive social value. Faces varying in trustworthiness were presented during a go/no-go letter target discrimination task synchronized with systolic or diastolic cardiac phase. Go trials lead to an attentional boosting of perceived trust on high trust and ambiguous neutral faces, suggesting attention both boosted existing and generated positive social value. Cardiac phase during face presentation interacted with attentional boosting of trust, enhancing high trust faces specifically during relaxed diastolic cardiac states. Confidence judgments revealed that attentional trust boosting, and its cardiac modulation, did not reflect altered perceptual or response fluency. These results provide evidence for how moment-to moment fluctuations in top-down mental and bottom-up bodily inputs combine to enhance a priori and generate de novo positive social value.
Highlights
Fluctuations in mental and bodily states have both been shown to be associated with negative affective experience
In this study we investigated the role of mental. i.e., attention, and bodily feedback, i.e., cardiac gating, in boosting positive social value, in the context of facial trustworthiness
Target but not distractor detection has been associated with an attentional boost to surrounding context in a similar go-no go paradigm[29]. We showed that such target detection enhances trustworthiness of trustworthy faces, and for faces that were of neutral trust value, as well as a trend for untrustworthy faces
Summary
Fluctuations in mental and bodily states have both been shown to be associated with negative affective experience. Confidence judgments revealed that attentional trust boosting, and its cardiac modulation, did not reflect altered perceptual or response fluency These results provide evidence for how moment-to moment fluctuations in top-down mental and bottom-up bodily inputs combine to enhance a priori and generate de novo positive social value. It has been shown that cardiac systole improves the detection and intensity rating of threat related stimuli[21,26], while under non-threat conditions relaxed parasympathetic diastolic heart states are associated with enhanced memory performance[20] and decreased response inhibition[27]. The potential underlying common origin of attentional and cardiac modulation of value suggests that momentary fluctuations in mental and bodily states interact to regulate our perception of value. In the realm of social value, if attention enhances value, this would increase perception of trustworthy faces, rather than modulate untrustworthy faces, and be greater during diastole relative to systole
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
