Impact of visual eccentricity on emotional reactivity: implications for anxious and depressive symptomatology

Abstract

• Better categorisation of emotion in both central (CV) and peripheral vision (PV). • An opposite pattern of autonomic arousal was observed between CV and PV. • Depression was associated with better categorisation of emotional pictures in CV. • Anxiety was associated with a response bias to unpleasant pictures in PV. Behavioural and autonomic dysregulation of emotion is reported in anxiety and depression. However, most experiments have focused on emotional stimuli presented in central vision (CV), although affective saliency has been observed in peripheral vision (PV). Unpleasant (U), pleasant (P) and neutral (N) pictures from the International Affective Picture System were presented to 40 participants at three eccentricities (CV: 0°; PV: -12 and 12°). Anxious and depressive symptomatology was evaluated with STAI and BDI scores respectively. Participants had to categorise pictures on their emotional content while skin conductance (SC), heart rate (HR), and pupillary responses (PR) were recorded. Emotional pictures were better categorised than neutral ones in both CV and PV. Unpleasant pictures were better categorised than pleasant ones in CV but not in PV. An opposite pattern of autonomic arousal (SC, HR, PR) was observed between CV and PV. In CV, a response bias was associated with higher SC to unpleasant pictures, whereas this association was the opposite in PV. Finally, depression scores were associated with better categorisation of emotional pictures in CV, whereas trait-anxiety was associated with a response bias to unpleasant pictures in PV. The choice of subclinical populations limits the scope of our results to moderate levels of depression and anxiety. Results suggest that the capacity of visual eccentricity to induce emotion reactivity is modulated by anxious and depressive symptomatology. These findings strengthen the usefulness of a central-peripheral visual model of behavioural stimulation to differentiate emotional reactivity dysfunctions in both affective disorders.