Emotion Induced Blindness Is More Sensitive to Changes in Arousal As Compared to Valence of the Emotional Distractor

Effect of emotional stimulus on response inhibition in people with mild cognitive impairment: an event-related potential study

Background

A few studies are emerging to explore the issue of how aging promotes emotional response inhibition. However, there is a lack of empirical study concerning the impact of pathological cognitive impairment on emotional response inhibition. The present study investigated the effect of emotion on response inhibition in people with mild cognitive impairment, the stage of cognitive impairment before dementia.

Methods

We used two emotional stop-signal tasks to explore whether the dual competition framework considering limited cognitive resources could explain the relationship between emotion and response inhibition in mild cognitive impairment.

Results

The results showed that negative emotions prolonged N2 latency. The Go trial accuracy was reduced in the high-arousal negative conditions and the stop-signal reaction time was prolonged under high-arousal conditions. This study also verified impaired response inhibition in mild cognitive impairment and found that negative emotions prolonged P3 latency in mild cognitive impairment.

Conclusion

Emotional information interferes with response inhibition in mild cognitive impairment populations, possibly because emotional information captures more attentional resources, thus interfering with response inhibition that relies on common-pool resources.

Emotion and prospective memory: effects of emotional targets and contexts

Event-based prospective memory (PM) refers to the ability to remember to perform a delayed and intended action when an event is encountered in the future. Whether emotional targets promote PM performance is still controversial. The reason for these inconsistent findings may be related to the degree of target arousal and context valence (the valence of ongoing task trials) in the previous studies. This study aimed to investigate the separate and combined effects of target valence, arousal, and context valence on event-based PM through two experiments. The results showed that the participants were faster and more accurate in responding to positive, negative, and high-arousal PM targets. Interestingly, an interaction effect of target valence, arousal, and context valence was observed, implying that their individual effects on PM performance cannot be understood in isolation. These findings demonstrate that positive, negative, and high-arousal PM targets can enhance PM performance. In addition, the results provided support for both the emotion enhancement account and the emotion-saliency account, depending upon whether the valence of the PM target matched or did not match the valence of the context. Moreover, context valence can modulate the effect of arousal on PM across different target valences.

The effect of emotional arousal on visual attentional performance: a systematic review

Although the arousal elicited by emotional stimuli, similarly to valence, is an integrative part of emotion theories, previous studies and reviews mostly focused on the valence of a stimulus and rarely investigated the role of arousal. Here, I systematically searched for articles that used visual attentional paradigms, manipulated emotional arousal by auditory or visual, task-relevant or task-irrelevant stimuli, measured behavioral responses, ocular behavior, or neural correlates. I found that task-relevant arousing stimuli draw and hold attention regardless of the modality. In contrast, task-irrelevant arousing stimuli impaired task performance. However, when the emotional content precedes the task or it is presented for a longer duration, arousal increased performance. Future directions on how research could address the remaining questions are discussed.

More than a feeling: The emotional attentional blink relies on non-emotional "pop out," but is weak compared to the attentional blink

The attentional blink (AB) reveals temporal limits of goal-driven attention: the second of two proximate targets presented in a rapid stream of non-targets is often missed. In the emotional AB (EAB, also termed emotion-induced blindness), an emotionally valenced distractor replacing the first target yields a similar blink. However, the AB and EAB have not been adequately compared, and thus the extent of their mechanistic similarity remains unclear. The current study interleaved AB and EAB trials using identical stimuli in the same participants and observed that the AB is consistently larger than the EAB. Moreover, the four main experiments varied in both target-defining features (semantic vs. perceptual) and EAB distractor salience (emotion alone vs. emotion plus physical distinctiveness); an EAB was observed only when distractors were physically distinct. Even when a large EAB was observed, the AB was still larger using a task with identical targets and fillers in the same individuals. These results suggest that: (1) goal-driven attentional control (measured by the AB) has a greater influence than stimulus-driven attentional control (measured by the EAB: emotion valence and physical distinctiveness) on selection from a dynamic series of stimuli, and (2) emotional valence is insufficient on its own to trigger an EAB. However, these results are consistent with the account that when attention has already been captured by a physically salient distractor, emotional content can interfere with disengagement from the already-attended stimulus.

Spatial distribution of emotional attentional blink under top-down attentional control

Emotion-induced blindness (EIB) refers to the impaired perception of a neutral target that follows an emotional distractor within the time gap of 100-500 ms. Recent studies on EIB show that EIB is spatially localized. Blink occurs when both target and emotional distractor appear in the same stream but not the opposite. However, the influence of top-down attentional control over the dual-stream EIB remains poorly understood. Examining the role of top-down control in EIB will help understand the impact of attentional control over the spatial distribution of EIB and in understanding the Attentional Blink (AB) and EIB distinction. Hence, in the present study, we used dual-stream and manipulated the attentional control by changing the relevance of the emotional image and asking participants to report both emotional and neutral targets. Our results show a similar level of blink irrespective of the spatial location of the emotional T1, suggesting the role of attentional control on the spatial distribution of EIB and in the AB-EIB distinction. Results have implications for the theoretical understanding of EIB.

Event-related potentials of food-induced blindness in the rapid serial visual presentation paradigm

Emotion-induced blindness is known as the impairment in the identification of targets that follow shortly after emotional distractors in the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm. Besides negative or erotic stimuli, food distractors have also been found to elicit a similar effect. This indicates an attentional bias for food stimuli in the temporal dimension of visual attention, which is highly relevant in the context of eating behaviour. So far, the neural mechanisms of this food-induced blindness are widely unknown. In the present study (N = 53), we investigated event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to food distractors and non-food targets in a single-target RSVP task. Automatic capture of visual attention by task-irrelevant food distractors was evident in enhanced Distractor Negativity (N2) and Early Food Positivity (P1). However, food distractors did not elicit a P3b. Thus, apparently, not the encoding of food distractors in working memory but alternative attentional processes are responsible for the food-induced blindness. Reduced target P3b reflected errors in target identification but was unaffected by the preceding distractor. In contrast, target N2 was specifically reduced for unidentified targets preceded by food distractors. Presumably, the attentional capture of food distractors may have caused a reduction of target N2, thereby contributing to the impairment in target identification. However, future research is needed to confirm this assumption and bridge the gap between the food-induced blindness on the behavioural level and the attentional capture of food stimuli reflected in the distractor ERPs.

Don't look now! Emotion-induced blindness: The interplay between emotion and attention

Scientists have long been interested in understanding the influence of emotionally salient stimuli on attention and perception. One experimental paradigm that has shown great promise in demonstrating the effect of such stimuli is emotion-induced blindness. That is, when emotionally salient stimuli are presented in a rapid stream of stimuli, they produce impairments in the perception of task-relevant stimuli, even though they themselves are task irrelevant. This is known as emotion-induced blindness, and it is a profound and robust form of attentional bias. Here, we review the literature on emotion-induced blindness, such as identifying the types of stimuli that elicit it, and its temporal dynamics. We discuss the role of dimensional versus categorical approaches to emotion in relation to emotion-induced blindness. We also synthesize the work examining whether certain individuals, such as those high in anxiety versus psychopathy, succumb to emotion-induced blindness to different extents, and we discuss whether the deficit can be reduced or even abolished. We review the theoretical models that have been proposed to explain the phenomenon. Finally, we identify exciting questions for future research, and elucidate useful frameworks to guide future investigations.

The Role of Emotional Information in Banner Blindness

Modern theories in affective science postulate that emotional stimuli can affect subject’s attention. Emotional stimuli can guide and capture visual attention, which may be related to evolutional importance of quick reactions for emotional objects in the real life. The study examined the influence of valence and arousal of advertisement on the banner blindness phenomenon—ignoring the advertisement or interface details similar to it on the website. In two experiments participants were asked to find the information on the website, where different banners were placed. In the first experiment banners had the same valence, but different arousal. In the second experiment, the banners had different valence, but equal arousal. Contrary to the classical studies in affective science, we found that banners with neutral valence were recognized better as compared to negative and positive ones. The results are discussed in terms of user experience contributing to banner blindness occurrence.

Dose-Response Transcranial Electrical Stimulation Study Design: A Well-Controlled Adaptive Seamless Bayesian Method to Illuminate Negative Valence Role in Tinnitus Perception

The use of transcranial Electrical Stimulation (tES) in the modulation of cognitive brain functions to improve neuropsychiatric conditions has extensively increased over the decades. tES techniques have also raised new challenges associated with study design, stimulation protocol, functional specificity, and dose-response relationship. In this paper, we addressed challenges through the emerging methodology to investigate the dose-response relationship of High Definition-transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD tDCS), identifying the role of negative valence in tinnitus perception. In light of the neurofunctional testable framework and tES application, hypotheses were formulated to measure clinical and surrogate endpoints. We posited that conscious pairing adequately pleasant stimuli with tinnitus perception results in correction of the loudness misperception and would be reinforced by concurrent active HD-tDCS on the left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (dlPFC). The dose-response relationship between HD-tDCS specificity and the loudness perception is also modeled. We conducted a double-blind, randomized crossover pilot study with six recruited tinnitus patients. Accrued data was utilized to design a well-controlled adaptive seamless Bayesian dose-response study. The sample size (n = 47, for 90% power and 95% confidence) and optimum interims were anticipated for adaptive decision-making about efficacy, safety, and single session dose parameters. Furthermore, preliminary pilot study results were sufficient to show a significant difference (90% power, 99% confidence) within the longitudinally detected self-report tinnitus loudness between before and under positive emotion induction. This study demonstrated a research methodology used to improve emotion regulation in tinnitus patients. In the projected method, positive emotion induction is essential for promoting functional targeting under HD-tDCS anatomical specificity to indicate the efficacy and facilitate the dose-finding process. The continuous updating of prior knowledge about efficacy and dose during the exploratory stage adapts the anticipated dose-response model. Consequently, the effective dose range to make superiority neuromodulation in correcting loudness misperception of tinnitus will be redefined. Highly effective dose adapts the study to a standard randomized trial and transforms it into the confirmatory stage in which active HD-tDCS protocol is compared with a sham trial (placebo-like). Establishing the HD-tDCS intervention protocols relying on this novel method provides reliable evidence for regulatory agencies to approve or reject the efficacy and safety. Furthermore, this paper supports a technical report for designing multimodality data-driven complementary investigations in emotion regulation, including EEG-driven neuro markers, Stroop-driven attention biases, and neuroimaging-driven brain network dynamics.

“In-emotional blindness”? Lower detection rates for unexpected stimuli in negative compared to positive emotions

Determining how emotional experience influences attention is a long standing goal of cognitive psychologists. Emotion is often broken down into two main dimensions, arousal and valence. While many theories focus more on the influence of one dimension than the other, the systematic investigation of the independent influences of the two dimensions of emotion on attention has been slow. In order to examine the relevance of both aspects of emotion, and their interplay on attention simultaneously, in the current experiment we induced low (satisfaction) and high (happiness) arousal positive emotions and low (sadness) and high (anger) arousal negative emotions in subjects before having them complete an inattentional blindness (IB) test. In line with theories that focus on the role of valence, we found that negative emotions led to more IB than positive emotions, and that arousal did not influence attention. Implications of the results for the theoretical contributions of the dimensions of emotion to visual attention are discussed.

Blinded by bodies: Elevated eating disorder symptomatology is associated with increased attentional priority for thin bodies

Selective processing of female thin-ideal body imagery is associated with greater body dissatisfaction, and eating disorder-specific rumination has been shown to mediate this relationship. Across two studies, we employed a modified rapid serial visual presentation task (similar to that used within the emotion-induced blindness literature), such that participants searched for a task-relevant target that was sometimes preceded by a thin body, non-thin body, or neutral task-irrelevant distractor. Our first experiment (N = 372) revealed a "body-induced blindness" in an unselected female sample, such that bodies in general distracted attention more than neutral images, and non-thin bodies distracted more than thin-ideal bodies. In our second experiment, female participants were selected based on eating disorder symptomatology (N = 114). Females that exhibited elevated eating disorder symptoms were distracted more by thin bodies compared to those low in symptomatology, greater distraction from thin bodies was associated with greater body dissatisfaction, and this relationship was mediated by eating disorder-specific rumination. Altogether, our findings illustrate the persistent nature of attentional distortions that occur early in cognitive processing and across time for those high in eating disorder symptomatology.

What drives prioritized visual processing? A motivational relevance account

Emotion is fundamental to our being, and an essential aspect guiding behavior when rapid responding is required. This includes whether we approach or avoid a stimulus, and the accompanying physiological responses. A common tenet is that threat-related content drives stimulus processing and biases visual attention, so that rapid responding can be initiated. In this paper, it will be argued instead that prioritization of threatening stimuli should be encompassed within a motivational relevance framework. To more fully understand what is, or is not, prioritized for visual processing one must, however, additionally consider: (i) stimulus ambiguity and perceptual saliency; (ii) task demands, including both perceptual load and cognitive load; and (iii) endogenous/affective states of the individual. Combined with motivational relevance, this then leads to a multifactorial approach to understanding the drivers of prioritized visual processing. This accords with current recognition that the brain basis allowing for visual prioritization is also multifactorial, including transient, dynamic and overlapping networks. Taken together, the paper provides a reconceptualization of how "emotional" information prioritizes visual processing.