ABSTRACT The integrative framework proposed by Luck and colleagues [Luck, S. J., Gaspelin, N., Folk, C. L., Remington, R. W., & Theeuwes, J. (2021). Progress toward resolving the attentional capture debate. Visual Cognition, 29(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2020.1848949] represents major progress in the field of attention research, and remaining areas of disagreement provide an opportunity to test hypotheses by drawing on other research traditions. From the perspective of research in cognitive-affective neuroscience, we first suggest ways in which recent analytic innovations in human neuroimaging can be used to test hypotheses proposed by Folk and Remington about how biases within distinct brain systems may be integrated within a control state. We then shift focus and extend recent critiques of the generalizability of vision-centred frameworks of emotional guidance of attention to the integrative framework, citing evidence that vision-based frameworks of attentional capture do not necessarily extend to other sensory modalities.

Protective facial masks reduce the spread of COVID-19 infection and save lives. Yet a substantial number of people have been resistant to wearing them. Considerable effort has been invested in convincing people to put on a mask, if not for their own sake than for those more vulnerable. Social and cognitive psychologists know that use and liking go both ways: people use what they like, and they like what they use. Here we asked whether positive attitudes towards facial masks were higher in those who had been wearing them longer. We asked participants in a diverse sample (N = 498 from five countries and more than 30 US states) to rate how attractive and emotionally arousing masks and other objects associated with COVID-19 were in comparison to neutral objects, as well as reporting on their mask-wearing habits. To confirm reliability of findings, the experiment was repeated in a subset of participants 8-10 weeks later. The findings show that regular use of protective masks was linked to their positive appraisal, with a higher frequency and a longer history of wearing a mask predicting increased mask attractiveness. These results extended to other COVID-related objects relative to controls. They also provide critical ecological validity for the idea that emotional appraisal of everyday objects is associated with our experience of using them. Practically, they imply that societal measures to encourage mask wearing may have contributed to positive emotional appraisals in those who put them on, whether due to personal choice or societal pressure.

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.

Visual selective attention is the process by which we tune ourselves to the world so that, of the millions of bits per second transmitted by the retina, the information that is most important to us reaches awareness and directs action. Recently, new areas of attention research have opened up as classic models dividing attention into top-down and bottom-up systems have been challenged. In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework, the priority state space (PSS) framework, integrating sources of salience that guide visual attention according to a nested hierarchy of goals. Using the PSS framework as a scaffold, we review evidence of selected sources of implicit attentional guidance, including recent research on statistical learning, semantic associations, and motivational and affective salience. We next summarize current understanding of the underlying neural circuitry facilitating guidance of attention by specific sources of salience, including key neuromodulator systems, with an emphasis on affective salience and the noradrenergic system. Finally, we discuss evidence for common mechanisms of prioritization, including integration of sources of salience via priority maps, and introduce the concept of the PSS as a model for mapping a complex dynamic attentional landscape.

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