Abstract
The ability to act quickly to a threat is a key skill for survival. Under awareness, threat-related emotional information, such as an angry or fearful face, has not only perceptual advantages but also guides rapid actions such as eye movements. Emotional information that is suppressed from awareness still confers perceptual and attentional benefits. However, it is unknown whether suppressed emotional information can directly guide actions, or whether emotional information has to enter awareness to do so. We suppressed emotional faces from awareness using continuous flash suppression and tracked eye gaze position. Under successful suppression, as indicated by objective and subjective measures, gaze moved towards fearful faces, but away from angry faces. Our findings reveal that: (1) threat-related emotional stimuli can guide eye movements in the absence of visual awareness; (2) threat-related emotional face information guides distinct oculomotor actions depending on the type of threat conveyed by the emotional expression.
Highlights
Detecting and reacting to potential threats in the environment is an essential skill for survival
Were threat-related emotional information to guide eye-movements, the trajectories could be similar or differential, that is depend on the nature of the threat, direct — angry faces — or indirect — fearful faces. We investigated these critical open questions by assessing whether different threat-related stimuli can direct oculomotor actions in the absence of awareness, as indicated by objective and subjective measures, and whether those actions are similar or differential by contrasting eye movements elicited by angry faces and fearful faces
We used neutral faces to control for the effects of face stimuli on eye movements that are unrelated to threat
Summary
Detecting and reacting to potential threats in the environment is an essential skill for survival. Emotional information that indicates threat in the environment, such as a fearful or angry face, confers perceptual and attentional advantages compared to neutral information (Carretie, 2014; Pourtois et al, 2013; Vuilleumier, 2005): Emotional information enhances visual sensitivity (Phelps et al, 2006; Fox et al, 2000), potentiates effects of attention on visual sensitivity (Ferneyhough et al, 2013; Bocanegra and Zeelenberg, 2009; Bocanegra and Zeelenberg, 2011a; Bocanegra and Zeelenberg, 2011b; Ohman et al, 2001; Lundqvist and Ohman, 2005) and on appearance (Barbot and Carrasco, 2018), and gains preferential access to awareness (Amting et al, 2010; Yang et al, 2007; Milders et al, 2006; Hedger et al, 2015). Emotional information influences gaze trajectories, that is directly guides eye movements. People’s eyes are attracted more towards emotional than neutral faces (Mogg et al, 2007; Kret et al, 2013a; Kret et al, 2013b), yet, sometimes gaze is repelled from threat-related –angry or fearful– faces (Hunnius et al, 2011; Becker and Detweiler-Bedell, 2009; Schmidt et al, 2012)
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.
