Emotional Facilitation of Sensory Processing in the Visual Cortex

A key function of emotion is the preparation for action. However, organization of successful behavioral strategies depends on efficient stimulus encoding. The present study tested the hypothesis that perceptual encoding in the visual cortex is modulated by the emotional significance of visual stimuli. Event-related brain potentials were measured while subjects viewed pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures. Early selective encoding of pleasant and unpleasant images was associated with a posterior negativity, indicating primary sources of activation in the visual cortex. The study also replicated previous findings in that affective cues also elicited enlarged late positive potentials, indexing increased stimulus relevance at higher-order stages of stimulus processing. These results support the hypothesis that sensory encoding of affective stimuli is facilitated implicitly by natural selective attention. Thus, the affect system not only modulates motor output (i.e., favoring approach or avoidance dispositions), but already operates at an early level of sensory encoding.

[1]  Michael Davis,et al.  Neurobiology of fear responses: the role of the amygdala. , 1997, The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences.

[2]  D. Tucker,et al.  The adaptive base of the neural hierarchy: elementary motivational controls on network function. , 1990, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation.

[3]  M. Bradley,et al.  Fleeting images: a new look at early emotion discrimination. , 2001, Psychophysiology.

[4]  G. Logan,et al.  Converging operations in the study of visual selective attention , 1996 .

[5]  M. Bradley,et al.  Emotional learning, hedonic change, and the startle probe. , 1993, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[6]  M. Posner,et al.  Spatiotemporal analysis of brain electrical fields , 1994 .

[7]  M. Bradley,et al.  Affective picture processing: the late positive potential is modulated by motivational relevance. , 2000, Psychophysiology.

[8]  P. Lang.  International Affective Picture System (IAPS) : Technical Manual and Affective Ratings , 1995 .

[9]  P. Lang,et al.  International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Instruction Manual and Affective Ratings (Tech. Rep. No. A-4) , 1999 .

[10]  Alfons O. Hamm,et al.  Motivational organization of emotions: Autonomic changes, cortical responses, and reflex modulation. , 2003 .

[11]  R. Lane,et al.  Neuroanatomical correlates of happiness, sadness, and disgust. , 1997, The American journal of psychiatry.

[12]  S. Yantis.  2. Attentional capture in vision , 1996 .

[13]  K. Scherer,et al.  Handbook of affective sciences. , 2003 .

[14]  B. Parkinson,et al.  Emotion and motivation , 1995 .

[15]  M. Bradley,et al.  Probing picture perception: activation and emotion. , 1996, Psychophysiology.

[16]  M. Posner,et al.  The attention system of the human brain. , 1990, Annual review of neuroscience.

[17]  D. Lundqvist,et al.  Unconscious emotion : Evolutionary perspectives, psychophysiological data, and neuropsychological mechanisms , 2000 .

[18]  C. MacLeod,et al.  Cognitive approaches to emotion and emotional disorders. , 1994, Annual review of psychology.

[19]  Peter J. Lang,et al.  Attention and Orienting : Sensory and Motivational Processes , 1997 .

[20]  S. Hillyard,et al.  Modulations of sensory-evoked brain potentials indicate changes in perceptual processing during visual-spatial priming. , 1991, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[21]  M. Gazzaniga.  The new cognitive neurosciences, 2nd ed. , 2000 .

[22]  M. Bradley,et al.  Motivated attention: Affect, activation, and action. , 1997 .

[23]  Drew H. Abney,et al.  Journal of Experimental Psychology : Human Perception and Performance Influence of Musical Groove on Postural Sway , 2015 .

[24]  M. Bradley,et al.  Brain potentials in affective picture processing: covariation with autonomic arousal and affective report , 2000, Biological Psychology.

[25]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  The affect system has parallel and integrative processing components: Form follows function. , 1999 .

[26]  L. Nadel,et al.  Cognitive neuroscience of emotion , 2000 .

[27]  H. Heinze,et al.  An event-related brain potential study of visual selective attention to conjunctions of color and shape. , 1999, Psychophysiology.

[28]  John T. Cacioppo,et al.  If Attitudes Affect How Stimuli Are Processed, Should They Not Affect the Event-Related Brain Potential? , 1993 .

[29]  R. Dolan,et al.  Conscious and unconscious emotional learning in the human amygdala , 1998, Nature.

[30]  George R. Mangun,et al.  Reflexive Attention Modulates Processing of Visual Stimuli in Human Extrastriate Cortex , 1998, Psychological science.

[31]  David G. Amaral,et al.  The role of the amygdala in primate social cognition. , 2000 .

[32]  T Greitz,et al.  Regional cerebral blood flow during experimental phobic fear. , 2007, Psychophysiology.

[33]  Risto N t nen.  Attention and brain function , 1992 .

[34]  J. Stainer,et al.  The Emotions , 1922, Nature.

[35]  M. Bradley,et al.  Emotional arousal and activation of the visual cortex: an fMRI analysis. , 1998, Psychophysiology.

[36]  Gregory A. Miller,et al.  Generalized Implementation of an Eye Movement Correction Procedure , 1988 .

[37]  M. Bradley,et al.  Emotion, attention, and the startle reflex. , 1990, Psychological review.

[38]  P. Lang.  The emotion probe. Studies of motivation and attention. , 1995, The American psychologist.

[39]  B. Rockstroh,et al.  Statistical control of artifacts in dense array EEG/MEG studies. , 2000, Psychophysiology.

[40]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Neural responses to salient visual stimuli , 1997, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.