Title: Effects of selective attention on threat-related values of emotional faces with and without awareness
Abstract: Event Abstract Back to Event Effects of selective attention on threat-related values of emotional faces with and without awareness Marzia Del Zotto1*, Martina Franchini2, Lore B. Legrand1 and Alan J. Pegna1 1 Geneva University Hospital (HUG), Switzerland 2 University of Geneva, Switzerland Neuroimaging studies have investigated processing of consciously detected emotional faces under conditions of focused or averted spatial attention, yielding contradictory results. Furthermore, the effects of selective attention on emotional face processing when the stimuli are not consciously detected remain unclear. To study the electrophysiological correlates of facial emotion processing for target vs. non-target, and conscious vs. non-conscious faces, we performed a backward-masking, selective attention task (simple reaction time) in which participants were asked to detect positive (happy and neutral) or negative (fearful and angry) emotional faces, presented either subliminally (17 ms plus 283 ms of mask) or supraliminally (283 ms plus 17 ms of mask) at the center of a screen. On half the occasions, targets were positive stimuli, while on the other half targets were negative. A 256-channel surface EEG recording was performed in 22 healthy right-handed adults (11 males) while they carried out this task. Results showed that negative emotions elicited a greater N170 than positive ones especially over the right temporal middle areas. Moreover, this component was sensitive to targets compared to non targets only for negative emotions at both subliminal and supraliminal levels over left temporal and temporo-occipital regions. At the same latency, the right hemisphere differentiated conscious from unconscious processing independent of emotional valence. These results lend further support to the fact that threat-related value expressions (anger or fear) tend to attract more attention than neutral or positive ones even in absence of awareness at an early stage of processing. Competition for attention thus appears to be biased towards negative emotional expressions. Keywords: Awareness, EEG Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Consciousness and Awareness Citation: Del Zotto M, Franchini M, Legrand LB and Pegna AJ (2011). Effects of selective attention on threat-related values of emotional faces with and without awareness. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00049 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 15 Nov 2011; Published Online: 25 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Marzia Del Zotto, Geneva University Hospital (HUG), Geneva, Switzerland, [email protected] Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Marzia Del Zotto Martina Franchini Lore B Legrand Alan J Pegna Google Marzia Del Zotto Martina Franchini Lore B Legrand Alan J Pegna Google Scholar Marzia Del Zotto Martina Franchini Lore B Legrand Alan J Pegna PubMed Marzia Del Zotto Martina Franchini Lore B Legrand Alan J Pegna Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.