Gaze behaviour is an important component of successful social interactions. Existing research on social gaze and attention has largely focused on gaze detection and following, rather than the two-way communicative component of gaze that operates between individuals. The present study sought to address this in two experiments. First, "hiders" were eye-tracked while they selected hiding places among a grid of boxes on a computer screen; these boxes were either homogeneous or contained a visually unique pop-out item. Importantly, sometimes hiders believed that their gaze would be seen by hypothetical "seekers" who they might wish to deceive or communicate truthful information to; and sometime hiders believed that their gaze would be concealed. In a second experiment, seekers were asked to select the hiders' locations after viewing the hiders' gaze behaviour, including the eye movements that hiders had been (falsely) told would be concealed. Results indicate that seekers are most accurate when hiders use their gaze to truthfully communicate their selected locations and least accurate when hiders aim to deceive. Notably, both communication and interpretation strategies were affected by the visual display type (e.g., hiders looked to and preferentially selected pop-out items when communicating truthfully while seekers interpreted gaze differently when allocated to these pop-out items), indicating that the visual context can be integrated with gaze to facilitate mis/communication. Our study illuminates how the gaze of an individual acquires and signals information, and that individuals will spontaneously adjust the balance between these two functions based on their current goal and visual environment.

In times of stress or danger, the autonomic nervous system (ANS) signals the fight or flight response. A canonical function of ANS activity is to globally mobilize metabolic resources, preparing the organism to respond to threat. Yet a body of research has demonstrated that, rather than displaying a homogenous pattern across the body, autonomic responses to arousing events, as measured through changes in electrodermal activity (EDA), can differ between right and left body locations. Surprisingly, an attempt to identify a function of ANS asymmetry consistent with its metabolic role has not been investigated. In the current study, we investigated whether asymmetric autonomic responses could be induced through limb-specific aversive stimulation. Participants were given mild electric stimulation to either the left or right arm while EDA was monitored bilaterally. In a group-level analyses, an ipsilateral EDA response bias was observed, with increased EDA response in the hand adjacent to the stimulation. This effect was observable in ∼50% of individual participants. These results demonstrate that autonomic output is more complex than canonical interpretations suggest. We suggest that, in stressful situations, autonomic outputs can prepare either the whole-body fight or flight response, or a simply a limb-localized flick, which can effectively neutralize the threat while minimizing global resource consumption. These findings are consistent with recent theories proposing evolutionary leveraging of neural structures organized to mediate sensory responses for processing of cognitive emotional cues.

In times of stress or danger, the autonomic nervous system (ANS) signals the fight or flight response. A canonical function of ANS activity is to globally mobilize metabolic resources, preparing the organism to respond to threat. Yet a body of research has demonstrated that, rather than displaying a homogenous pattern across the body, autonomic responses to arousing events — as measured through changes in electrodermal activity (EDA) — can differ between right and left body locations. Surprisingly, the metabolic function of such ANS asymmetry has not been investigated. In the current study, we investigated whether asymmetric autonomic responses could be induced through limb-specific aversive stimulation. Participants were given mild electric stimulation to either the left or right arm while EDA was monitored bilaterally. Across participants, a strong ipsilateral EDA response bias was observed, with increased EDA response in the hand adjacent to the stimulation. This effect was observable in over 50% of individual subjects. These results demonstrate that autonomic output is more complex than canonical interpretations suggest. We suggest that, in stressful situations, autonomic outputs can prepare either the whole-body fight or flight response, or a simply a limb-localized flick , which can effectively neutralize the threat while minimizing global resource consumption. These findings provide insight into the evolutionary pathway of neural systems processing general arousal by linking observed asymmetry in the peripheral arousal response to a historical leveraging of neural structures organized to mediate responses to localized threat.

Researchers may seek to manipulate visual recognition while maintaining the the underlying low-level visual properties of an image. To this end, researchers have used a class of stimuli known as “texforms” that are unrecognisable yet closely match the low-level properties of the original, recognizable stimuli from which they are synthesized. Texforms, however, can require a significant amount of time to generate using parameters specified by previous researchers, thereby limiting one’s ability to conduct studies that require many exemplars. Furthermore, if a researcher seeks to manipulate the recognisability of texforms to varying degrees, the computational processing time can increase even further. By using different parameters, we show that one can synthesize texforms much more quickly, which permits the generation of many exemplars at different degrees of recognisability. We also compare the low-level visual properties of the texforms generated with different parameters.

It is well established that emotionally salient stimuli evoke greater visual cortex activation than neutral ones, and can distract attention from competing tasks. Yet less is known about underlying neurobiological processes. As a proxy of population level biased competition, EEG steady-state visual evoked potentials are sensitive to competition effects from salient stimuli. Here we wished to examine whether individual differences in norepinephrine activity play a role in emotionally-biased competition. Our previous research has found robust effects of a common variation in the ADRA2B gene, coding for alpha2B norepinephrine (NE) receptors, on emotional modulation of attention and memory. In the present study, EEG was collected while 87 carriers of the ADRA2B deletion variant and 95 non-carriers (final sample) performed a change detection task in which target gratings (gabor patches) were superimposed directly over angry, happy, and neutral faces. Participants indicated the number of phase changes (0-3) in the target. Overlapping targets and distractors were flickered at a distinct driving frequencies. Relative EEG power for faces vs. targets at the driving frequency served as an index of cortical resources allocated to each of the competing stimuli. Deletion carriers and non-carriers were randomly assigned to Discovery and Replication samples and reliability of results across samples was assessed before the groups were combined for greater power. Overall happy faces evoked higher competition than angry or neutral faces; however, we observed no hypothesized effects of ADRA2B. Increased competition from happy faces was not due to the effect of low-level visual features or individuals low in social anxiety. Our results indicate that emotionally biased competition during sustained attention, while reliably observed in young adults, is not influenced by commonly observed individual differences linked to NE receptor function. They further indicate an overall pattern of affectively-biased competition for happy faces, which we interpret in relation to previously observed boundary conditions.

It is well established that emotionally salient stimuli evoke greater visual cortex activation than neutral ones and can distract attention from competing tasks. However, less is known about the underlying neurobiological processes that give rise to such effects. As a proxy of population level biased competition, EEG steady-state visual evoked potentials measured at the scalp can be sensitive to competition effects from salient stimuli. In the present study, we wished to examine whether individual differences in norepinephrine activity play a role in emotionally-biased competition. Our previous research has found robust effects of a common variation in the ADRA2b gene coding for alpha2 NE receptors on individual differences in emotional modulation of attention, subjective perception, and memory. In the present study of healthy young adults, our final participant sample included 87 carriers of the ADRA2b deletion variant and 95 non-carriers. Participants performed a change detection task in which foveal targets (gabor patches) were superimposed directly over angry, happy, and neutral faces, and indicated the number of phase changes (0-3) observed in the gabor patch. Overlapping targets and distractors were each flickered at a distinct driving frequency (15 and 20 Hz, counterbalanced within-subject) for three seconds. Relative power for faces vs. targets at the driving frequency served as an index of cortical resources allocated to each of the competing stimuli. To mitigate the danger of false positives in small sample genotyping studies, deletion carriers and non-carriers were separately randomly assigned to equal-sized discovery and replication samples and reliability of results across samples was assessed before the groups were combined for greater power. Overall ssVEP power was higher for targets than distractors, but less so when distractor faces were happy. A difference score was calculated to index competition for each emotion condition (angry, happy neutral) as a measure of the degree to which face stimuli competed with targets. Happy faces evoked higher competition than angry or neutral faces, with strongest effects at earlier time windows, mirroring previous findings in a smaller sample with low social anxiety; however, we observed no hypothesized effects of ADRA2b in either sample or in the full dataset. Bayesian analyses confirmed null effects. Follow-up single-trial analysis found that increased competition from happy faces was not due to the effect of low-level visual features. Overall, our results indicate that emotionally biased competition at the neuronal population level, while reliably observed in young adults, is not influenced by individual differences in putative norepinephrine availability. They further indicate an overall pattern of affectively-biased competition for happy faces, which we interpret in relation to previously observed boundary conditions.

Despite the scientific consensus, there is widespread public controversy about climate change. Previous explanations focused on interpretations hampered by political bias or insufficient knowledge of climate facts. We propose that public views of climate change may also be related to an attentional bias at a more basic level of cognitive processing. We hypothesized that selective visual attention towards or away from climate-related information would be associated with climate concern. To test prioritization of climate-related stimuli under conditions of limited attention, we asked participants to identify climate-related and neutral words within a rapid stream of stimuli. Undergraduate students attended to climate-related words more readily than neutral words. This attentional prioritization correlated with self-rated climate concern. We then examined this relationship in a more diverse community sample. Principal component analysis of survey data in the community sample revealed a component indexing a relationship between climate concern and political orientation. That component was correlated with the degree of selective inattention to climate-related words. Our findings suggest that climate-related communications may be most effective if tailored in a manner accounting for how attentional priorities differ between audiences—particularly those with different political orientations.

There is a growing consensus among researchers that a complete description of human attention and action should include information about how these processes are informed by social context. When we actively engage in co-action with others, there are characteristic changes in action kinematics, reaction time, search behavior, as well as other processes (see Sebanz et al., 2003; Becchio et al., 2010; Wahn et al., 2017). It is now important to identify precisely what is shared between co-actors in these joint action situations. One group recently found that participants seem to withdraw their attention away from a partner and toward themselves when co-engaged in a line bisection judgment task (Szpak et al., 2016). This effect runs counter to the typical finding that attention is drawn toward social items in the environment (Birmingham et al., 2008, 2009; Foulsham et al., 2011). As such, the result suggests that joint action can uniquely lead to the withdrawal of covert attention in a manner detectable by a line bisection task performed on a computer screen. This task could therefore act as a simple and elegant measure of interpersonal effects on attention within particular pairs of participants. For this reason, the present work attempted to replicate and extend the finding that attention, as measured by a line-bisection task, is withdrawn away from nearby co-actors. Overall our study found no evidence of social modulation of covert attention. This suggests that the line bisection task may not be sensitive enough to reliably measure interpersonal attention effects - at least when one looks at overall group performance. However, our data also hint at the possibility that the effect of nearby others on the distribution of attention may be modulated by individual differences.

Anecdotal reports that time “flies by” or “slows down” during emotional events are supported by evidence that the motivational relevance of stimuli influences subsequent duration judgments. Yet it is unknown whether the subjective quality of events as they unfold is altered by motivational relevance. In a novel paradigm, we measured the subjective experience of moment-to-moment visual perception. Participants judged the temporal smoothness of high-approach positive images (desserts), negative images (e.g., of bodily mutilation), and neutral images (commonplace scenes) as they faded to black. Results revealed approach-motivated blurring, such that positive stimuli were judged as smoother and negative stimuli as choppier relative to neutral stimuli. Participants’ ratings of approach motivation predicted perceived fade smoothness after we controlled for low-level stimulus features. Electrophysiological data indicated that approach-motivated blurring modulated relatively rapid perceptual activation. These results indicate that stimulus value influences subjective temporal perceptual acuity; approach-motivating stimuli elicit perception of a “blurred” frame rate characteristic of speeded motion.

It is well established that emotionally salient stimuli implicitly guide attention and enhance visual cortex activation. Yet when emotional salience is pitted against task-relevant goals, mixed effects have been observed, with salient stimuli sometimes hampering task performance (competition), and sometimes improving it (facilitation). Non-human animal research suggests norepinephrine (NE) plays a role in enhancing the gain of neural populations tuned to both affectively salient and goal-relevant stimuli. In humans, genotyping for a common (~50%) deletion variant of the ADRA2b gene, which codes for alpha2b NE receptors, provides a window into the role of NE availability. The goals of the present study were: (1) To examine allocation of cortical resources to task demands in the presence of emotionally salient distractors, and (2) to employ genotyping to explore the role of noradrenergic processes. We measured steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) during a change detection task wherein task-relevant Gabor patches were overlaid on task-irrelevant happy, angry, or neutral faces. The overlapping stimuli were driven at distinct frequencies (15 Hz or 20 Hz, counterbalanced within participants). Observers were asked to report phase reversals in the Gabor patch and ssVEP amplitude at driving frequencies was extracted to measure allocation of attention. Observers showed greater accuracy and higher ssVEP amplitudes for targets overlaid on angry faces than on happy or neutral faces, indicating a pronounced facilitation in the presence of negative stimuli. ssVEP amplitudes for faces showed an effect of arousal, with higher amplitudes for happy and angry faces, suggesting there was not a trade-off between resources allocated to targets vs. distractors. Preliminary genotyping results (N = 126) indicate that carrying the ADRA2b deletion variant enhanced the facilitation effect, suggesting that, rather than playing a requisite role, greater NE availability functions to enhance existing patterns facilitation of focused attention by negative affect. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2017

Previous research has shown that attentional sets can be tuned to implicitly prioritize awareness of universally aversive or rewarding stimuli. But can mere ownership modulate implicit attentional prioritization as well? In Experiments 1 and 2, participants learned whether everyday objects belonged to them (self-owned) or the experimenter (other-owned) and completed a temporal order judgment task in which pairs of stimuli appeared onscreen with staggered timing. Results revealed a prior-entry effect, in which participants were more likely to report seeing a self-owned object first when 2 objects appeared simultaneously. In Experiment 3, no ownership status was assigned and no such effect was observed. Individual differences in the prior-entry effect were unrelated to independent self-construal, positive associations for self-owned objects, or loss aversion. These results suggest that attentional prioritization is not limited to universally salient stimuli. Rather, self-relevance, even when recently acquired, can engage an implicit attentional set that biases our perception of the environment.

The emotional relevance, or affective salience, of a stimulus is known to influence subjective time estimation. Paradigms typically used to measure such salience-driven distortions require the participant to judge stimulus duration. Yet these paradigms neglect to measure the temporal resolution of the moment-to-moment experience, and whether viewing affectively salient stimuli modulates visual sampling rate is not known. In two experiments we employed neutral, negative, and positive (approach-motivating) dessert images. First, to confirm previous findings we used these stimuli in a temporal bisection paradigm to assess affective distortion of stimulus duration judgment. Participants learned two standard durations, “short” (400 ms) and “long” (1600 ms). Subsequently, stimuli were presented for seven durations (400 to 1600 ms at 200 ms intervals) and were categorized by the participant as either “short” or “long”. Stimulus durations for negative stimuli were judged as longer than for the other two stimulus types. Second, we used a novel experimental paradigm to test affective distortion of moment-to-moment subjective temporal perceptual experience. We hypothesized that negatively valenced salient stimuli would increase visual sampling rate relative to neutral stimuli, leading to greater acuity in detecting changes between frames. In this task, participants viewed a “standard” stimulus fading to black over a 2000 ms period at 48 frames per second, immediately followed by a “target” stimulus fading to black over a 2000 ms period at 24, 48, or 72 frames per second. Participants then rated the smoothness of the target stimulus fade, as compared to the standard, where judgments of the target as less smooth suggest more ease in distinguishing frames and thus increased visual sampling rate. Negative stimuli were judged as fading less smoothly than other stimulus categories. These results suggest that negatively valenced stimuli increase temporal sampling rate, indicating a possible mechanism underlying influence of affective salience on perceived duration. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015

Stimulus features such as brightness, color, and subjective arousal level are potent in capturing attention. This capture facilitates perceptual encoding and subsequent processing. Yet, it is still unknown whether stimuli related to long-term personal concerns similarly capture attention. To address this question, we employed an attentional blink (AB) paradigm, where observers detected two targets embedded in a stream of distractors during rapid serial visual presentation. The second target (T2) was either a word related to climate change or a neutral word (Experiment 1). Observers were more likely to detect T2 if it was climate-related than neutral. We refer to this reduced attentional blink for words related to climate change as climate word AB sparing. To examine whether this was driven by emotional arousal, we added a condition with negative emotionally arousing words (Experiment 2). We again found that observers were more likely to detect climate-related and negative T2 words than neutral ones. However, the climate words (e.g. carbon) were rated as less arousing than the negative words (e.g. murder), suggesting that climate word AB sparing was not strictly due to immediate arousal. Finally, to examine whether the sparing was explained by semantic priming, because climate words share a semantic category, we performed a version of the experiment with health-related rather than climate-related words (Experiment 3). Observers were equally likely to detect health-related or neutral targets, suggesting that the climate-word AB sparing was not due to semantic priming. In all experiments, no mention of climate change was made in the instructions. In subsequent surveys, most observers expressed environmental concerns. Thus, the heightened perceptual encoding of climate change stimuli was driven by long-term concerns. In sum, these findings suggest that attentional tuning to salient stimuli can reflect associations with long-term concerns, rather than immediate arousal or priming of a semantic category. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015