Sawada Reiko, Sato Wataru
Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, 41-2 Kanrin, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2015 Sep 14;5:14042. doi: 10.1038/srep14042.
Previous studies have shown that emotional facial expressions capture visual attention. However, it has been unclear whether attentional modulation is attributable to their emotional significance or to their visual features. We investigated this issue using a spatial cueing paradigm in which non-predictive cues were peripherally presented before the target was presented in either the same (valid trial) or the opposite (invalid trial) location. The target was an open dot and the cues were photographs of normal emotional facial expressions of anger and happiness, their anti-expressions and neutral expressions. Anti-expressions contained the amount of visual changes equivalent to normal emotional expressions compared with neutral expressions, but they were usually perceived as emotionally neutral. The participants were asked to localize the target as soon as possible. After the cueing task, they evaluated their subjective emotional experiences to the cue stimuli. Compared with anti-expressions, the normal emotional expressions decreased and increased the reaction times (RTs) in the valid and invalid trials, respectively. Shorter RTs in the valid trials and longer RTs in the invalid trials were related to higher subjective arousal ratings. These results suggest that emotional facial expressions accelerate attentional engagement and prolong attentional disengagement due to their emotional significance.
先前的研究表明，情绪化的面部表情会吸引视觉注意力。然而，注意力调节是归因于其情感意义还是视觉特征尚不清楚。我们使用空间线索范式来研究这个问题，在该范式中，非预测性线索在目标出现在相同（有效试验）或相反（无效试验）位置之前在外围呈现。目标是一个空心点，线索是愤怒和快乐等正常情绪化面部表情的照片、它们的反表情和中性表情。与中性表情相比，反表情包含与正常情绪化表情等量的视觉变化，但它们通常被视为情感中性。要求参与者尽快定位目标。在线索任务之后，他们对线索刺激的主观情绪体验进行评价。与反表情相比，正常情绪化表情在有效试验和无效试验中分别缩短和延长了反应时间（RTs）。有效试验中较短的反应时间和无效试验中较长的反应时间与较高的主观唤醒评分相关。这些结果表明，情绪化的面部表情因其情感意义而加速注意力的参与并延长注意力的脱离。
