Bi Taiyong, Du Yangyang, Wang Xiaogang, Sang Na, Zhang Fan, Kou Hui, Zhu Qian, Qiu Jiang
School of Management, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, People's Republic of China.
Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2019 May 17;12:375-384. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S188121. eCollection 2019.
Spatial attention could enhance the neural activities of attended locations in human visual cortex. As a salient stimulus, emotional image could enhance the responses in amygdala and visual areas. However, few studies examined the interaction of the attentional effects induced by emotional stimuli and spatial cues on the neural responses in visual areas. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the combined and separated effects of emotional image and spatial cue on the activities in human visual areas. A revised Posner cueing paradigm was utilized. Each participant viewed a fearful image and a peaceful image simultaneously in left and right visual fields. A spatial cue of two dots was then presented in one of the image positions. In this manner, the attentional effects for emotional image and spatial cue could be isolated and combined. The results showed that spatial cue enhanced the responses in V4, intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and lateral occipital area (LO), while emotional image could enhance the responses in V3, V4 and LO. Importantly, no significant interactions were found in any of the visual areas. Our results indicate that the two kinds of attentional modulation might not be affected by each other. These findings shed light on the neural mechanism of the emotional attention.
空间注意力能够增强人类视觉皮层中被关注位置的神经活动。作为一种显著刺激,情绪性图像能够增强杏仁核和视觉区域的反应。然而,很少有研究考察情绪刺激和空间线索所诱发的注意力效应在视觉区域神经反应上的相互作用。在本研究中,我们使用功能磁共振成像(fMRI)来考察情绪性图像和空间线索对人类视觉区域活动的联合及分离效应。采用了一种修订的波斯纳线索范式。每位参与者在左右视野中同时观看一张恐惧图像和一张平静图像。然后在其中一个图像位置呈现两个点的空间线索。通过这种方式,情绪性图像和空间线索的注意力效应能够被分离和联合起来。结果表明,空间线索增强了V4、顶内沟(IPS)和枕外侧区(LO)的反应,而情绪性图像能够增强V3、V4和LO的反应。重要的是,在任何视觉区域均未发现显著的交互作用。我们的结果表明,这两种注意力调制可能不会相互影响。这些发现为情绪注意力的神经机制提供了启示。