Diane L. Santesso, Alicia E. Meuret, Stefan G. Hofmann, Erik M. Mueller, Kyle G. Ratner, Etienne B. Roesch and Diego A. Pizzagalli
Neuropsychologia, in press
The goal of this study was to examine behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of involuntary orienting toward rapidly presented angry faces in non-anxious, healthy adults using a dot-probe task in conjunction with high-density event-related potentials and a distributed source localization technique. Consistent with previous studies, participants showed hypervigilance toward angry faces, as indexed by facilitated response time for validly cued probes following angry faces and an enhanced P1 component. An opposite pattern was found for happy faces suggesting that attention was directed toward the relatively more threatening stimuli within the visual field (neutral faces). Source localization of the P1 effect for angry faces indicated increased activity within the anterior cingulate cortex, possibly reflecting conflict experienced during invalidly cued trials. No modulation of the early C1 component was found for affect or spatial attention. Furthermore, the face-sensitive N170 was not modulated by emotional expression. Results suggest that the earliest modulation of spatial attention by face stimuli is manifested in the P1 component, and provide insights about mechanisms underlying attentional orienting toward cues of threat and social disapproval.
Showing posts with label angry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label angry. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Friday, July 20, 2007
ARTICLE UPDATE - Behold the voice of wrath: Cross-modal modulation of visual attention by anger prosody.
Brosch T, Grandjean D, Sander D, Scherer KR.
Cognition, in press
Emotionally relevant stimuli are prioritized in human information processing. It has repeatedly been shown that selective spatial attention is modulated by the emotional content of a stimulus. Until now, studies investigating this phenomenon have only examined within-modality effects, most frequently using pictures of emotional stimuli to modulate visual attention. In this study, we used simultaneously presented utterances with emotional and neutral prosody as cues for a visually presented target in a cross-modal dot probe task. Response times towards targets were faster when they appeared at the location of the source of the emotional prosody. Our results show for the first time a cross-modal attentional modulation of visual attention by auditory affective prosody.
Cognition, in press
Emotionally relevant stimuli are prioritized in human information processing. It has repeatedly been shown that selective spatial attention is modulated by the emotional content of a stimulus. Until now, studies investigating this phenomenon have only examined within-modality effects, most frequently using pictures of emotional stimuli to modulate visual attention. In this study, we used simultaneously presented utterances with emotional and neutral prosody as cues for a visually presented target in a cross-modal dot probe task. Response times towards targets were faster when they appeared at the location of the source of the emotional prosody. Our results show for the first time a cross-modal attentional modulation of visual attention by auditory affective prosody.
Monday, July 09, 2007
ARTICLE UPDATE - The voice of emotion: an FMRI study of neural responses to angry and happy vocal expressions.
Johnstone T, van Reekum CM, Oakes TR, Davidson RJ.
Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience, 1, 242-249
The human voice is one of the principal conveyers of social and affective communication. Yet relatively little is known about the neural circuitry that supports the recognition of different vocally expressed emotions. We conducted an FMRI study to examine the brain responses to vocal expressions of anger and happiness, and to test whether specific brain regions showed preferential engagement in the processing of one emotion over the other. We also tested the extent to which simultaneously presented facial expressions of the same or different emotions would enhance brain responss, and to what degree such responses depend on attention towards the vocal expression. Forty healthy individuals were scanned while listening to vocal expressions of anger or happiness, while at the same time watching congruent or discrepant facial expressions. Happy voices elicited significantly more activation than angry voices in right anterior and posterior middle temporal gyrus (MTG), left posterior MTG and right inferior frontal gyrus. Furthermore, for the left MTG region, happy voices were related to higher activation only when paired with happy faces. Activation in the left insula, left amygdala and hippocampus, and rostral anterior cingulate cortex showed an effect of selectively attending to the vocal stimuli. Our results identify a network of regions implicated in the processing of vocal emotion, and suggest a particularly salient role for vocal expressions of happiness.
Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience, 1, 242-249
The human voice is one of the principal conveyers of social and affective communication. Yet relatively little is known about the neural circuitry that supports the recognition of different vocally expressed emotions. We conducted an FMRI study to examine the brain responses to vocal expressions of anger and happiness, and to test whether specific brain regions showed preferential engagement in the processing of one emotion over the other. We also tested the extent to which simultaneously presented facial expressions of the same or different emotions would enhance brain responss, and to what degree such responses depend on attention towards the vocal expression. Forty healthy individuals were scanned while listening to vocal expressions of anger or happiness, while at the same time watching congruent or discrepant facial expressions. Happy voices elicited significantly more activation than angry voices in right anterior and posterior middle temporal gyrus (MTG), left posterior MTG and right inferior frontal gyrus. Furthermore, for the left MTG region, happy voices were related to higher activation only when paired with happy faces. Activation in the left insula, left amygdala and hippocampus, and rostral anterior cingulate cortex showed an effect of selectively attending to the vocal stimuli. Our results identify a network of regions implicated in the processing of vocal emotion, and suggest a particularly salient role for vocal expressions of happiness.
Friday, June 15, 2007
ARTICLE UPDATE - Anger and fear: Separable effects of emotion and motivational direction on somatovisceral responses.
Stemmler G, Aue T, Wacker J.
International Journal of Psychophysiology, in press
We studied whether emotion (anger vs. fear) and motivational direction (approach vs. withdrawal) have specific, separable, and independent somatovisceral response patterns. Imagination scripts about soccer game episodes with crossed Emotion × Motivational Direction content resulting in four experimental groups were presented to a total of N = 118 active soccer players. Self-reports reflected the emotion but not the motivational direction induction. Univariate and multivariate analyses of 24 somatovisceral variables and 2 a priori defined summary variables showed that anger and fear had specific response profiles with effect sizes correlating r = 0.53 with the respective effect sizes from a previous study. Approach and withdrawal profiles varied only in intensity. Emotion and motivational direction did not interact and had independent somatovisceral effects. Results suggest that anger and fear have separate underlying neurobiological organizations each capable of bi-directional motivational tuning of efferent pathways. Results support the Component Model of Somatovisceral Response Organization.
International Journal of Psychophysiology, in press
We studied whether emotion (anger vs. fear) and motivational direction (approach vs. withdrawal) have specific, separable, and independent somatovisceral response patterns. Imagination scripts about soccer game episodes with crossed Emotion × Motivational Direction content resulting in four experimental groups were presented to a total of N = 118 active soccer players. Self-reports reflected the emotion but not the motivational direction induction. Univariate and multivariate analyses of 24 somatovisceral variables and 2 a priori defined summary variables showed that anger and fear had specific response profiles with effect sizes correlating r = 0.53 with the respective effect sizes from a previous study. Approach and withdrawal profiles varied only in intensity. Emotion and motivational direction did not interact and had independent somatovisceral effects. Results suggest that anger and fear have separate underlying neurobiological organizations each capable of bi-directional motivational tuning of efferent pathways. Results support the Component Model of Somatovisceral Response Organization.
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