Abstract

A new dopaminergic regulation hypothesis is proposed based on two experiments exploring eye-movement effects. In the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Saccade-Induced Retrieval Enhancement (SIRE) domains, eye-movement mechanisms are mainly studied with explicit measures. Here implicit and explicit measures of emotion and memory for positive and negative pictures were investigated after eye movements or fixation in extreme right-handers. Eye movements enhanced explicit recognition predominantly for negative pictures. The absence of implicit repetition priming in both experiments supported a dissociation between implicit and explicit memory. Motivational eye-movement effects emerged but implicit and explicit affect remained unchanged. Experiment 2 revealed, after initial freezing to negative pictures, an acceleration, particularly of approach responses. Eye movements are postulated to foster approach towards negative memories, and promote, though dopaminergic pathways from the Superior Colliculus, enhanced explicit memory and active emotion regulation, primarily in persons with a collateralization of eye and dopamine dominance.

Highlights

  • We investigated whether eye movements relative to fixation enhance memory for negative pictures, whether eye movements weaken the affective strength of these pictures, and whether avoidance tendencies of these negative images may be weakened and possibly even be redirected into the opposite approach-oriented processing

  • Faster responses were made to negative (M = 793 ± 112 ms) than positive pictures (M = 835 ± 111 ms; 95% confidence intervals (CI) Mdiff [20, 64]; Cohen’s dz = 0.574). This is probably due to most participants resting their index finger on the left, negative button, and needing more time to reach the right, positive button

  • Repetition priming, irrespective of eye condition, was evidenced by reaction times (RT) being shorter for Post-Old (M = 756 ± 95 ms) than Pre-New (M = 850 ± 118 ms; 95% CI Mdiff [67, 121]; Cohen’s dz = 1.050) and Post-New pictures (M = 837 ± 103 ms; 95% CI Mdiff [59, 103]; Cohen’s dz = 1.122)

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Summary

Methods

Participants Fifty-three students from the University of Amsterdam signed informed consent after being informed that shocking images would be presented. Exclusion criteria were previous participation in EMDR therapy, uncorrected visual impairment, and proneness to dizziness and/or nausea. Participants scoring more than 15% errors on the easy evaluation task were excluded from analyses. Random assignment resulted in approximately equal group sizes (eye movement: N = 27; fixation: N = 26). Participants Sixty-two extremely right-handed students from the University of Amsterdam signed informed consent after being informed that shocking images were presented. The same exclusion criteria applied as in Experiment 1, except for the error limit being reduced to 10%, because evaluation of the extremely valenced pictures was easier here. Random participant assignment resulted in equal group sizes (eye movement N = 31; fixation N = 31)

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