scholarly journals Drawn to distraction: Anxiety impairs neural suppression of known distractor featuresin visual search

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Salahub ◽  
Stephen Emrich
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Template Matching ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
High Anxiety ◽  
Guided Search ◽  
Distractor Processing ◽  
Related Potentials

When searching for a target, it is possible to suppress the features of a known distractor. This suppression may occur early, preventing distractor processing altogether, or only after the distractor initially captures attention. The time course of suppression may also differ as a function of attentional control abilities, such as is seen in individuals with high anxiety. In the present study (N = 48), we used event-related potentials to examine the time course of attentional enhancement and suppression when participants were given pre-trial information about target or distractor features. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that individuals with higher levels of anxiety showed lower neural measures of suppressing the template-matching distractor, with greater evidence of enhancement. Despite this deficit in suppression, later distractor inhibition remained intact. These findings indicate that neural suppression of template-matching distractors is impaired in anxiety – highlighting the role of attentional control abilities in distractor-guided search.

Drawn to Distraction: Anxiety Impairs Neural Suppression of Known Distractor Features in Visual Search

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Christine Salahub ◽  
Stephen M. Emrich
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Template Matching ◽  
Time Course ◽  
High Anxiety ◽  
Guided Search ◽  
Distractor Processing ◽  
Search And Destroy

Abstract When searching for a target, it is possible to suppress the features of a known distractor. This suppression may prevent distractor processing altogether or only after the distractor initially captures attention (i.e., search and destroy). However, suppression may be impaired in individuals with attentional control deficits, such as in high anxiety. In this study (n = 48), we used ERPs to examine the time course of attentional enhancement and suppression when participants were given pretrial information about target or distractor features. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that individuals with higher levels of anxiety had lower neural measures of suppressing the template-matching distractor, instead showing enhanced processing. These findings indicate that individuals with anxiety are more likely to use a search-and-destroy mechanism of negative templates—highlighting the importance of attentional control abilities in distractor-guided search.

scholarly journals In exogenous attention, time is the clue: brain and heart interactions to survive threatening stimuli

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Ruiz-Padial ◽  
Francisco Mercado
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Exogenous Attention ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Negative Stimuli

AbstractThe capture of exogenous attention by negative stimuli has been interpreted as adaptive for survival in a diverse and changing environment. In the present paper, we investigate the neural responses towards two discrete negative emotions with different biological meanings, disgust and fear, and its potential relationships with heart rate variability (HRV) as an index of emotional regulation. With that aim, 30 participants performed a digit categorization task while fear, disgust and neutral distractor pictures were presented. Resting HRV at baseline, behavioral responses, and event-related potentials were recorded. Whereas P1 amplitudes were highest to fear distractors, the disgust stimulation led to augmented P2 amplitudes compared to the rest of distractors. Interestingly, increased N2 amplitudes were also found to disgust distractors, but only in high HRV participants. Neural source estimation data point to the involvement of the insula in this exogenous attentional response to disgust. Additionally, disgust distractors provoked longer reaction times than fear and neutral distractors in the high HRV group. Present findings are interpreted in evolutionary terms suggesting that exogenous attention is captured by negative stimuli following a different time course for fear and disgust. Possible HRV influences on neural mechanisms underlying exogenous attention are discussed considering the potential important role of this variable in emotional regulation processes.

scholarly journals In exogenous attention, time is the clue: Brain and heart interactions to survive threatening stimuli

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0243117
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Ruiz-Padial ◽  
Francisco Mercado
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Exogenous Attention ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Negative Stimuli

The capture of exogenous attention by negative stimuli has been interpreted as adaptive for survival in a diverse and changing environment. In the present paper, we investigate the neural responses towards two discrete negative emotions with different biological meanings, disgust and fear, and its potential relationships with heart rate variability (HRV) as an index of emotional regulation. With that aim, 30 participants performed a digit categorization task while fear, disgust and neutral distractor pictures were presented. Resting HRV at baseline, behavioral responses, and event-related potentials were recorded. Whereas P1 amplitudes were highest to fear distractors, the disgust stimulation led to augmented P2 amplitudes compared to the rest of distractors. Interestingly, increased N2 amplitudes were also found to disgust distractors, but only in high HRV participants. Neural source estimation data point to the involvement of the insula in this exogenous attentional response to disgust. Additionally, disgust distractors provoked longer reaction times than fear and neutral distractors in the high HRV group. Present findings are interpreted in evolutionary terms suggesting that exogenous attention is captured by negative stimuli following a different time course for fear and disgust. Possible HRV influences on neural mechanisms underlying exogenous attention are discussed considering the potential important role of this variable in emotional regulation processes.

scholarly journals How we pay attention in naturalistic settings

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Turoman ◽  
Ruxandra Tivadar ◽  
Chrysa Retsa ◽  
Micah M. Murray ◽  
Pawel J. Matusz
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Control ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
Spatial Cueing ◽  
Strength Based ◽  
Electrical Neuroimaging ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Goal Relevance

Research on attentional control has largely focused on single senses and the importance of one s behavioural goals in controlling attention. However, everyday situations are multisensory and contain regularities, both likely influencing attention. We investigated how visual attentional capture is simultaneously impacted by top-down goals, multisensory nature of stimuli, and contextual factors of stimulus semantic relationship and predictability. Participants performed a multisensory version of the Folk et al., (1992) spatial cueing paradigm, searching for a target of a predefined colour (e.g. a red bar) within an array preceded by a distractor. We manipulated: 1) stimulus goal-relevance via distractor s colour (matching vs. mismatching the target), 2) stimulus multisensory nature (colour distractors appearing alone vs. with tones), 3) relationship between the distractor sound and colour (arbitrary vs. semantically congruent) and 4) predictability of the distractor onset. Reaction-time spatial cueing served as a behavioural measure of attentional selection. We also recorded 129-channel event-related potentials (ERPs), analysing the distractor elicited N2pc component both canonically and using a multivariate electrical neuroimaging (EN) framework. Behaviourally, arbitrary target-matching distractors captured attention more strongly than semantically congruent ones, with no evidence for context modulating multisensory enhancements of capture. Notably, EN analyses revealed context-based influences on attention to both visual and multisensory distractors, in how strongly they activated the brain and type of activated brain networks. In both cases, these context-driven brain response modulations occurred long before the N2pc timewindow, with network-based modulations at app. 30ms, followed by strength-based modulations at app. 100ms post-distractor. This points to meaning being a second source, next to predictions, of contextual information facilitating goal-directed behaviour. More broadly, in everyday situations, attentional is controlled by an interplay between one s goals, stimulus perceptual salience and stimulus meaning and predictability. Our study calls for a revision of attentional control theories to account for the role of contextual and multisensory control.

scholarly journals Expectancy of Stress-Reducing Aromatherapy Effect and Performance on a Stress-Sensitive Cognitive Task

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Chamine ◽  
Barry S. Oken
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Stress Reduction ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
N200 Amplitude ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
And Performance

Objective. Stress-reducing therapies help maintain cognitive performance during stress. Aromatherapy is popular for stress reduction, but its effectiveness and mechanism are unclear. This study examined stress-reducing effects of aromatherapy on cognitive function using the go/no-go (GNG) task performance and event related potentials (ERP) components sensitive to stress. The study also assessed the importance of expectancy in aromatherapy actions.Methods. 81 adults were randomized to 3 aroma groups (active experimental, detectable, and undetectable placebo) and 2 prime subgroups (prime suggesting stress-reducing aroma effects or no-prime). GNG performance, ERPs, subjective expected aroma effects, and stress ratings were assessed at baseline and poststress.Results. No specific aroma effects on stress or cognition were observed. However, regardless of experienced aroma, people receiving a prime displayed faster poststress median reaction times than those receiving no prime. A significant interaction for N200 amplitude indicated divergent ERP patterns between baseline and poststress for go and no-go stimuli depending on the prime subgroup. Furthermore, trends for beneficial prime effects were shown on poststress no-go N200/P300 latencies and N200 amplitude.Conclusion. While there were no aroma-specific effects on stress or cognition, these results highlight the role of expectancy for poststress response inhibition and attention.

Prediction and integration in native and second-language processing of elliptical structures

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDITH KAAN ◽  
JOSEPH KIRKHAM ◽  
FRANK WIJNEN
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Second Language Processing ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Frontal Negativity ◽  
Related Potentials

According to recent views of L2-sentence processing, L2-speakers do not predict upcoming information to the same extent as do native speakers. To investigate L2-speakers’ predictive use and integration of syntactic information across clauses, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from advanced L2-learners and native speakers while they read sentences in which the syntactic context did or did not allow noun-ellipsis (Lau, E., Stroud, C., Plesch, S., & Phillips, C. (2006). The role of structural prediction in rapid syntactic analysis. Brain and Language, 98, 74–88.) Both native and L2-speakers were sensitive to the context when integrating words after the potential ellipsis-site. However, native, but not L2-speakers, anticipated the ellipsis, as suggested by an ERP difference between elliptical and non-elliptical contexts preceding the potential ellipsis-site. In addition, L2-learners displayed a late frontal negativity for ungrammaticalities, suggesting differences in repair strategies or resources compared with native speakers.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document