Abstract
This study examines the links between human perceptions, cognitive biases and neural processing of symmetrical stimuli. While preferences for symmetry have largely been examined in the context of disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and autism spectrum disorders, we examine various these phenomena in non-clinical subjects and suggest that such preferences are distributed throughout the typical population as part of our cognitive and neural architecture. In Experiment 1, 82 young adults reported on the frequency of their obsessive-compulsive spectrum behaviors. Subjects also performed an emotional Stroop or variant of an Implicit Association Task (the OC-CIT) developed to assess cognitive biases for symmetry. Data not only reveal that subjects evidence a cognitive conflict when asked to match images of positive affect with asymmetrical stimuli, and disgust with symmetry, but also that their slowed reaction times when asked to do so were predicted by reports of OC behavior, particularly checking behavior. In Experiment 2, 26 participants were administered an oddball Event-Related Potential task specifically designed to assess sensitivity to symmetry as well as the OC-CIT. These data revealed that reaction times on the OC-CIT were strongly predicted by frontal electrode sites indicating faster processing of an asymmetrical stimulus (unparallel lines) relative to a symmetrical stimulus (parallel lines). The results point to an overall cognitive bias linking disgust with asymmetry and suggest that such cognitive biases are reflected in neural responses to symmetrical/asymmetrical stimuli.
Highlights
Humans appear to have an inherent appreciation for many symmetrical aspects of the natural world, such as markings on coral reef fish and butterflies [1]
We found that subjective reports of preferences for symmetry and order are linked to cognitive biases on this adaptation of the Implicit Association Task, which, in turn, is linked with cortical processing of an asymmetrical oddball stimulus
This study examined the links among the subjective experiences of certain aspects of obsessive-compulsive behavior, performance on tasks assessing cognitive and affective associations with symmetry, and the neural processing of (a)symmetry
Summary
Humans appear to have an inherent appreciation for many symmetrical aspects of the natural world, such as markings on coral reef fish and butterflies [1]. Non-humans appear to recognize and prefer symmetry. Preferences for symmetry have been attributed to a variety of evolutionary pressures that equate symmetrical signaling systems with constructs such as beauty, attraction, and biological fitness [3,4,5,6]. The human appreciation for symmetry appears to go beyond signaling and the evaluation of biological fitness, extending to a more general sense of aesthetics. Work with human infants demonstrates that children begin to show preferences for vertical symmetry by four months of age [7], a preference which is well-established by twelve months of age [7]. More recent work in humans has focused almost exclusively on the link between beauty, attraction, the preference for symmetrical faces, and the impact of this preference on sexual selection [8,9]. Symmetry preferences exist in a wide range of animals despite the fact that visual systems have evolved differently across species (e.g., the visual systems of cephalopods and insects are markedly different in structure and function from the human visual system [1])
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