Eye cannot see it: The interference of subliminal distractors on saccade metrics

AbstractThe present study investigated whether subliminal (unconsciously perceived) visual information influences eye movement metrics, like saccade trajectories and endpoints. Participants made eye movements upwards and downwards while a subliminal distractor was presented in the periphery. Results showed that the subliminal distractor interfered with the execution of an eye movement, although the effects were smaller compared to a control experiment in which the distractor was presented supraliminal. Because saccade metrics are mediated by low level brain areas, this indicates that subliminal visual information evokes competition at a very low level in the oculomotor system

Conditioned fear modulates visual selection

Eye movements reflect the dynamic interplay between top-down-and bottom-up-driven processes. For example, when we voluntarily move our eyes across the visual field, salient visual stimuli in the environment may capture our attention, our eyes, or modulate the trajectory of an eye movement. Previous research has shown that the behavioral relevance of a salient stimulus modulates these processes. This study investigated whether a stimulus signaling an aversive event modulates saccadic behavior. Using a differential fear-conditioning procedure, we presented a threatening (conditional stimulus: CS+) and a nonthreatening stimulus distractor (CS+) during an oculomotor selection task. The results show that short-latency saccades deviated more strongly toward the CS+ than toward the CS+ distractor, whereas long-latency saccades deviated more strongly away from the CS+ than from the CS+ distractor. Moreover, the CS+ distractor captured the eyes more often than the CS+ distractor. Together, these results demonstrate that conditioned fear has a direct and immediate influence on visual selection. The findings are interpreted in terms of a neurobiological model of emotional visual processing

Distribution of Attention Modulates Salience Signals in Early Visual Cortex

Previous research has shown that the extent to which people spread attention across the visual field plays a crucial role in visual selection and the occurrence of bottom-up driven attentional capture. Consistent with previous findings, we show that when attention was diffusely distributed across the visual field while searching for a shape singleton, an irrelevant salient color singleton captured attention. However, while using the very same displays and task, no capture was observed when observers initially focused their attention at the center of the display. Using event-related fMRI, we examined the modulation of retinotopic activity related to attentional capture in early visual areas. Because the sensory display characteristics were identical in both conditions, we were able to isolate the brain activity associated with exogenous attentional capture. The results show that spreading of attention leads to increased bottom-up exogenous capture and increased activity in visual area V3 but not in V2 and V1

Emotional Modulation of Gaze Cueing Does Not Depend on a Global Perceptual Processing Strategy

All (raw and processed) data have been made publicly available at the Open Science Framework (OSF) and can be accessed at https://osf.io/wqfc6/view_only=ddd26573be2945a9a18e0cfccbc32ce

Disentangling attention from action in the emotional spatial cueing task

In the emotional spatial cueing task, a peripheral cue-either emotional or non-emotional-is presented before target onset. A stronger cue validity effect with an emotional relative to a non-emotional cue (i.e., more efficient responding to validly cued targets relative to invalidly cued targets) is taken as an indication of emotional modulation of attentional processes. However, results from previous emotional spatial cueing studies are not consistent. Some studies find an effect at the validly cued location (shorter reaction times compared to a non-emotional cue), whereas other studies find an effect at the invalidly cued location (longer reaction times compared to a non-emotional cue). In the current paper, we explore which parameters affect emotional modulation of the cue validity effect in the spatial cueing task. Results from five experiments in healthy volunteers led to the conclusion that a threatening spatial cue did not affect attention processes but rather indicate that motor processes are affected. A possible mechanism might be that a strong aversive cue stimulus decreases reaction times by means of stronger action preparation. Consequently, in case of a spatially congruent response with the peripheral cue, a stronger cue validity effect could be obtained due to stronger response priming. The implications for future research are discussed

Unconscious attentional orienting to exogenous cues: A review of the literature

The present paper reviews research that focuses on the dissociation between bottom-up attention and consciousness. In particular, we focus on studies investigating spatial exogenous orienting in the absence of awareness. We discuss studies that use peripheral masked onset cues and studies that use gaze cueing. The results from these studies show that the classic biphasic pattern of facilitation and inhibition, which is characteristic of conscious exogenous cueing can also be obtained with subliminal spatial cues. It is hypothesized that unconscious attentional orienting is mediated by the subcortical retinotectal pathway. Moreover, a possible neural network including superior colliculus, pulvinar and amygdala is suggested as the underlying mechanism. © 2010 Elsevier B.V