Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Israel; The Integrated Brain and Behavior Research Center (IBBR), University of Haifa, Israel.
Department of Psychology and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Cortex. 2020 Jan;122:131-139. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.12.008. Epub 2018 Dec 21.
Based on findings showing that attention is captured by aversive stimuli, previous studies have hypothesized that inhibition of return (IOR) is reduced at spatial locations previously occupied by threat cues. Yet evidence for this view is limited: Only a few studies have demonstrated a reduced degree of IOR following threat cues, while most have not found differences in IOR between aversive and neutral cues. In contrast to previous studies that used the spatial cuing paradigm and for the most part employed mild negative stimuli as cues, we examined the influence of highly aversive, colored and complex pictures of real life situations. As opposed to the stimuli used in previous studies, these pictures are thought to result in enhanced processing as well as in specific enhancement for threat pictures in comparison to neutral ones. Based on evidence indicating that enhanced processing of spatial cues results in increased IOR, we hypothesized that the negative picture cues employed in the present study would yield increased IOR. This hypothesis was confirmed in two experiments. We suggest that the enhancement of IOR following highly threatening cues may be related to efficient spatial orienting of attention in response to stimuli that are important from an evolutionary point of view. The results are discussed in the context of neurocognitive mechanisms that may underlie the modulation of IOR by emotional information.
基于注意被厌恶刺激吸引的发现，先前的研究假设，在先前被威胁线索占据的空间位置上，返回抑制（IOR）会减少。然而，这一观点的证据有限：只有少数研究表明，在威胁线索之后，IOR 的程度会降低，而大多数研究并没有发现厌恶和中性线索之间的 IOR 差异。与之前使用空间提示范式的研究不同，并且在很大程度上使用温和的负面刺激作为线索，我们研究了高度厌恶、彩色和复杂的现实生活情境图片的影响。与之前研究中使用的刺激不同，这些图片被认为会导致处理增强，并且与中性图片相比，对威胁图片的特定增强。基于表明空间线索增强处理会导致 IOR 增加的证据，我们假设本研究中使用的负面图片线索会产生增加的 IOR。这一假设在两个实验中得到了证实。我们认为，高度威胁线索后 IOR 的增强可能与对从进化角度来看重要的刺激进行有效空间定向有关。结果在讨论神经认知机制时进行了讨论，这些机制可能是情绪信息调节 IOR 的基础。
