Dynamic modulation of emotional processing

Recent findings suggest the processing of emotional stimuli is prioritized compared to neutral stimuli; however, it is not necessarily automatic and depends on several modulating factors. The current paper highlights three major factors that affect the reactions to emotional stimuli: (i) stimulus properties, (ii) task demands and attention, and (iii) individual characteristics. The evidence reviewed here suggests that individual characteristics shape the structure, function and connectivity within a neural network that is involved in the reactions to emotional stimuli. This neural network includes regions related to emotion and attention, in line with evidence for reciprocal connections between these two processes. Activation in this network further depends on the emotional value of a certain item, as well as physical features of the stimulus. This integrative view can lead to better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of emotional reactions, as well as better therapeutic approaches

Attentional bias in anxiety and depression: The impact of emotional and non-emotional distracting information

Both anxiety and major depression disorder (MDD) were reported to involve a maladaptive selective attention mechanism, associated with bias toward negative stimuli. Previous studies investigated attentional bias using distractors that required processing as part of task settings, and therefore, in our view, these distractors should be regarded as task-relevant. Here, we applied a unique task that used peripheral distractors that presented emotional and spatial information simultaneously. Notably, the emotional information was not associated in any way to the task, and thus was task-irrelevant. The spatial information, however, was task-relevant as it corresponded with task instructions. Corroborating previous findings, anxious patients showed attentional bias toward negative information. MDD patients showed no indication of this bias. Spatial information influenced all groups similarly. These results indicate that anxiety, but not MDD, is associated with an inherent negative information bias, further illustrating that the two closely related disorders are characterized by different processing patterns

Faces are special, but facial expressions aren’t: Insights from an oculomotor capture paradigm

peer reviewedWe compared the ability of angry and neutral faces to drive oculomotor behaviour as a test of the widespread claim that emotional information is automatically prioritized when competing for attention. Participants were required to make a saccade to a colour singleton; photos of angry or neutral faces appeared amongst other objects within the array, and were completely irrelevant for the task. Eye-tracking measures indicate that faces drive oculomotor behaviour in a bottom-up fashion; however, angry faces are no more likely to capture the eyes than neutral faces are. Saccade latencies suggest that capture occurrs via reflexive saccades and that the outcome of competition between salient items (colour singletons and faces) may be subject to fluctuations in attentional control. Indeed, although angry and neutral faces captured the eyes reflexively on a portion of trials, participants successfully maintained goal-relevant oculomotor behaviour on a majority of trials. We outline potential cognitive and brain mechanisms underlying oculomotor capture by faces