Del Zotto Marzia, Pegna Alan J
Laboratory of Experimental Neuropsychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva , Geneva, Switzerland.
Laboratory of Experimental Neuropsychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva , Geneva, Switzerland ; School of Psychology, University of Queensland , Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Front Psychol. 2015 Oct 31;6:1691. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01691. eCollection 2015.
In order to investigate the interactions between non-spatial selective attention, awareness and emotion processing, we carried out an ERP study using a backward masking paradigm, in which angry, fearful, happy, and neutral facial expressions were presented, while participants attempted to detect the presence of one or the other category of facial expressions in the different experimental blocks. ERP results showed that negative emotions enhanced an early N170 response over temporal-occipital leads in both masked and unmasked conditions, independently of selective attention. A later effect arising at the P2 was linked to awareness. Finally, selective attention was found to affect the N2 and N3 components over occipito-parietal leads. Our findings reveal that (i) the initial processing of facial expressions arises prior to attention and awareness; (ii) attention and awareness give rise to temporally distinct periods of activation independently of the type of emotion with only a partial degree of overlap; and (iii) selective attention appears to be influenced by the emotional nature of the stimuli, which in turn impinges on unconscious processing at a very early stage. This study confirms previous reports that negative facial expressions can be processed rapidly, in absence of visual awareness and independently of selective attention. On the other hand, attention and awareness may operate in a synergistic way, depending on task demand.
为了研究非空间选择性注意、意识与情绪加工之间的相互作用，我们采用了一种后向掩蔽范式进行了一项事件相关电位（ERP）研究，在该范式中呈现愤怒、恐惧、高兴和中性的面部表情，同时让参与者在不同的实验块中尝试检测其中一类面部表情的出现。ERP结果表明，在有掩蔽和无掩蔽条件下，负性情绪均增强了颞枕导联上早期的N170反应，且与选择性注意无关。在P2出现的较晚效应与意识有关。最后，发现选择性注意会影响枕顶导联上的N2和N3成分。我们的研究结果表明：（i）面部表情的初始加工在注意和意识之前就已出现；（ii）注意和意识会产生时间上不同的激活期，且与情绪类型无关，仅有部分重叠；（iii）选择性注意似乎受刺激的情绪性质影响，而这又会在非常早期影响无意识加工。本研究证实了先前的报道，即负性面部表情可在无视觉意识且与选择性注意无关的情况下被快速加工。另一方面，注意和意识可能会根据任务需求以协同的方式发挥作用。
