Department of Psychology, New York University, NY, New York, USA.
Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, NY, Rochester, USA.
Sci Rep. 2018 Apr 12;8(1):5938. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-23686-8.
The ability to swiftly detect and prioritize the processing of relevant information around us is critical for the way we interact with our environment. Selective attention is a key mechanism that serves this purpose, improving performance in numerous visual tasks. Reflexively attending to sudden information helps detect impeding threat or danger, a possible reason why emotion modulates the way selective attention affects perception. For instance, the sudden appearance of a fearful face potentiates the effects of exogenous (involuntary, stimulus-driven) attention on performance. Internal states such as trait anxiety can also modulate the impact of attention on early visual processing. However, attention does not only improve performance; it also alters the way visual information appears to us, e.g. by enhancing perceived contrast. Here we show that emotion potentiates the effects of exogenous attention on both performance and perceived contrast. Moreover, we found that trait anxiety mediates these effects, with stronger influences of attention and emotion in anxious observers. Finally, changes in performance and appearance correlated with each other, likely reflecting common attentional modulations. Altogether, our findings show that emotion and anxiety interact with selective attention to truly alter how we see.
快速检测和优先处理周围相关信息的能力对于我们与环境的交互方式至关重要。选择性注意是一种关键机制，可提高多项视觉任务的性能。对外源（非自愿的、受刺激驱动的）信息的自动注意有助于察觉阻碍或危险，这可能是情绪调节选择性注意影响感知方式的原因之一。例如，恐惧面孔的突然出现增强了外源注意对外显注意的影响。特质焦虑等内部状态也可以调节注意力对早期视觉处理的影响。然而，注意力不仅能提高表现；它还改变了我们感知视觉信息的方式，例如通过增强感知对比度。我们在此表明，情绪增强了外源注意对表现和感知对比度的影响。此外，我们发现特质焦虑介导了这些影响，焦虑观察者的注意力和情绪影响更强。最后，表现和外观的变化相互关联，可能反映了共同的注意力调节。总的来说，我们的发现表明情绪和焦虑与选择性注意相互作用，真正改变了我们的视觉方式。
