Fixation-pattern similarity analysis reveals adaptive changes in face-viewing strategies following aversive learning

TY - JOUR

T1 - Fixation-pattern similarity analysis reveals adaptive changes in face-viewing strategies following aversive learning

AU - Kampermann, Lea

AU - Wilming, Niklas

AU - Alink, Arjen

AU - Büchel, Christian

AU - Onat, Selim

N1 - © 2019, Kampermann et al.

PY - 2019/10/22

Y1 - 2019/10/22

N2 - Animals can effortlessly adapt their behavior by generalizing from past aversive experiences, allowing to avoid harm in novel situations. We studied how visual information was sampled by eye-movements during this process called fear generalization, using faces organized along a circular two-dimensional perceptual continuum. During learning, one face was conditioned to predict a harmful event, whereas the most dissimilar face stayed neutral. This introduced an adversity gradient along one specific dimension, while the other, unspecific dimension was defined solely by perceptual similarity. Aversive learning changed scanning patterns selectively along the adversity-related dimension, but not the orthogonal dimension. This effect was mainly located within the eye region of faces. Our results provide evidence for adaptive changes in viewing strategies of faces following aversive learning. This is compatible with the view that these changes serve to sample information in a way that allows discriminating between safe and adverse for a better threat prediction.

AB - Animals can effortlessly adapt their behavior by generalizing from past aversive experiences, allowing to avoid harm in novel situations. We studied how visual information was sampled by eye-movements during this process called fear generalization, using faces organized along a circular two-dimensional perceptual continuum. During learning, one face was conditioned to predict a harmful event, whereas the most dissimilar face stayed neutral. This introduced an adversity gradient along one specific dimension, while the other, unspecific dimension was defined solely by perceptual similarity. Aversive learning changed scanning patterns selectively along the adversity-related dimension, but not the orthogonal dimension. This effect was mainly located within the eye region of faces. Our results provide evidence for adaptive changes in viewing strategies of faces following aversive learning. This is compatible with the view that these changes serve to sample information in a way that allows discriminating between safe and adverse for a better threat prediction.

U2 - 10.7554/eLife.44111

DO - 10.7554/eLife.44111

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 31635690

VL - 8

JO - ELIFE

JF - ELIFE

SN - 2050-084X

ER -