Abstract
Introduction:Facial expressions contain important affective information, and selective attention to facial expression provides an advantage in the face of loss, stress and danger. In addition, the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis mediate the organism’s response to loss and danger. Here, we aimed at investigating the influence of sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activation on selective attention to affective facial stimuli.Methods and materials:One hundred-and-four healthy men between 18–35 years old (mean (standard deviation) age: 24.1 (3.5) years) participated in the study. We used a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled design. Participants received either: (a) yohimbine, (b) hydrocortisone, (c) yohimbine and hydrocortisone or (d) placebo only and participated in a dot-probe task with sad, happy and neutral faces. We collected salivary samples to measure cortisol and alpha amylase activity in addition to measurements of blood pressure and heart rate. Salivary cortisol served as correlate of hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activation and salivary alpha amylase activity, blood pressure and heart rate as correlates of sympathetic nervous system activation. Measurements were carried out before and after drug administration.Results:We did not find a main effect or interaction effect of hydrocortisone or yohimbine administration on selective attention to happy faces. However, we found an interaction of yohimbine and hydrocortisone on selective attention to sad faces. Post-hoc t-test revealed an attentional bias away from sad stimuli and towards neutral faces in the hydrocortisone-only group.Discussion:Only hydrocortisone administration led to an attentional bias away from sad faces. Future studies should investigate these effects in major depression disorder, as this disorder is characterised by glucocorticoid resistance and increased processing of sad stimuli.
Highlights
Facial expressions contain important affective information, and selective attention to facial expression provides an advantage in the face of loss, stress and danger
mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) effects and activation of the noradrenergic system in the early phase of the stress response might explain effects in the fludrocortisone condition. This is in line with a study investigating sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activation reporting selective attention to salient stimuli after arousal induction (Lee et al, 2014). These results suggest that early MR effects and SNS activation enable fast reactions to negative facial expressions such as sadness, disgust, fear and anger with enhanced attentional bias, while glucocorticoid receptor (GR) activation has opposing effects, i.e. a reduced attentional bias
In line with our hypothesis, we did not find an effect of hydrocortisone or yohimbine or its combination on selective attention to happy faces
Summary
Facial expressions contain important affective information, and selective attention to facial expression provides an advantage in the face of loss, stress and danger. We aimed at investigating the influence of sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activation on selective attention to affective facial stimuli. MR effects and activation of the noradrenergic system in the early phase of the stress response might explain effects in the fludrocortisone condition This is in line with a study investigating SNS activation reporting selective attention to salient stimuli after arousal induction (Lee et al, 2014). These results suggest that early MR effects and SNS activation enable fast reactions to negative facial expressions such as sadness, disgust, fear and anger with enhanced attentional bias, while GR activation has opposing effects, i.e. a reduced attentional bias
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