Wittfoth Dina, Preibisch Christine, Lanfermann Heinrich
Institut für Diagnostische und Interventionelle Neuroradiologie, Medizinische Hochschule HannoverHannover, Germany.
Abteilung für Neuroradiologie, Klinikum rechts der Isar der TU MünchenMünchen, Germany.
Front Neurosci. 2017 Aug 14;11:443. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00443. eCollection 2017.
Lateralization in emotional processing is a matter of ongoing debate. Various factors can influence lateralized emotional processing, including stimulus location, emotional valence, and gender. In the present study, we aim to elucidate how unattended emotional facial expressions shown at different locations in the visual field influence behavioral responses, eye movement, and neural responses in a sample of healthy women. Our female participants viewed fearful, happy and neutral faces presented at central and peripheral (left or right) locations while keeping their gaze locked on a central fixation crosshairs and indicating stimulus location via button presses. Throughout the experiment, we monitored fixation and gaze shifts by means of eye tracking. We analyzed eye movements, neural and behavioral responses from = 18 participants with excellent tracking and task performance. Face stimuli presented in the left hemifield entailed the fastest reactions irrespective of face valence. Unwarranted gaze shifts away from central fixation were rare and mainly directed at peripherally presented stimuli. A distributed neural network comprising the right amygdala, left temporal pole, left middle temporal gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, and right posterior putamen differentially responded to centrally presented fearful faces, and to peripherally presented neutral and happy faces, especially when they appeared in the left hemifield. Our findings point to a visual field bias on the behavioral and neural level in our female sample. Reaction times, eye movements and neural activations varied according to stimulus location. An interactive effect of face location with face valence was present at the neural level but did not translate to behavioral or eye movement responses.
情绪加工中的偏侧化是一个仍在争论的问题。各种因素会影响情绪加工的偏侧化，包括刺激位置、情绪效价和性别。在本研究中，我们旨在阐明在健康女性样本中，视野中不同位置出现的未被关注的情绪化面部表情如何影响行为反应、眼动和神经反应。我们的女性参与者观看呈现于中央和外周（左侧或右侧）位置的恐惧、开心和中性面孔，同时将目光锁定在中央固定十字准线上，并通过按键指示刺激位置。在整个实验过程中，我们通过眼动追踪监测注视和眼跳。我们分析了来自18名追踪和任务表现出色的参与者的眼动、神经和行为反应。无论面孔效价如何，呈现于左半视野的面孔刺激引发的反应最快。从中央注视点无端转移的眼跳很少见，且主要指向外周呈现的刺激。一个由右侧杏仁核、左侧颞极、左侧颞中回、右侧额上回和右侧壳核后部组成的分布式神经网络，对中央呈现的恐惧面孔以及外周呈现的中性和开心面孔有不同反应，尤其是当这些面孔出现在左半视野时。我们的研究结果表明，在我们的女性样本中，行为和神经水平上存在视野偏向。反应时间、眼动和神经激活根据刺激位置而变化。面孔位置与面孔效价在神经水平上存在交互作用，但并未转化为行为或眼动反应。
