Selective attention to task-irrelevant emotional distractors is unaffected by the perceptual load associated with a foreground task.

TY - JOUR

T1 - Selective attention to task-irrelevant emotional distractors is unaffected by the perceptual load associated with a foreground task.

AU - Hindi Attar, Catherine

AU - Müller, Matthias M

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - A number of studies have shown that emotionally arousing stimuli are preferentially processed in the human brain. Whether or not this preference persists under increased perceptual load associated with a task at hand remains an open question. Here we manipulated two possible determinants of the attentional selection process, perceptual load associated with a foreground task and the emotional valence of concurrently presented task-irrelevant distractors. As a direct measure of sustained attentional resource allocation in early visual cortex we used steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) elicited by distinct flicker frequencies of task and distractor stimuli. Subjects either performed a detection (low load) or discrimination (high load) task at a centrally presented symbol stream that flickered at 8.6 Hz while task-irrelevant neutral or unpleasant pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) flickered at a frequency of 12 Hz in the background of the stream. As reflected in target detection rates and SSVEP amplitudes to both task and distractor stimuli, unpleasant relative to neutral background pictures more strongly withdrew processing resources from the foreground task. Importantly, this finding was unaffected by the factor 'load' which turned out to be a weak modulator of attentional processing in human visual cortex.

AB - A number of studies have shown that emotionally arousing stimuli are preferentially processed in the human brain. Whether or not this preference persists under increased perceptual load associated with a task at hand remains an open question. Here we manipulated two possible determinants of the attentional selection process, perceptual load associated with a foreground task and the emotional valence of concurrently presented task-irrelevant distractors. As a direct measure of sustained attentional resource allocation in early visual cortex we used steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) elicited by distinct flicker frequencies of task and distractor stimuli. Subjects either performed a detection (low load) or discrimination (high load) task at a centrally presented symbol stream that flickered at 8.6 Hz while task-irrelevant neutral or unpleasant pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) flickered at a frequency of 12 Hz in the background of the stream. As reflected in target detection rates and SSVEP amplitudes to both task and distractor stimuli, unpleasant relative to neutral background pictures more strongly withdrew processing resources from the foreground task. Importantly, this finding was unaffected by the factor 'load' which turned out to be a weak modulator of attentional processing in human visual cortex.

KW - Humans

KW - Electroencephalography

KW - Analysis of Variance

KW - Attention/physiology

KW - Emotions/physiology

KW - Visual Cortex/physiology

KW - Discrimination (Psychology)/physiology

KW - Evoked Potentials, Visual/physiology

KW - Humans

KW - Electroencephalography

KW - Analysis of Variance

KW - Attention/physiology

KW - Emotions/physiology

KW - Visual Cortex/physiology

KW - Discrimination (Psychology)/physiology

KW - Evoked Potentials, Visual/physiology

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0037186

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0037186

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

VL - 7

SP - 37186

JO - PLOS ONE

JF - PLOS ONE

SN - 1932-6203

IS - 5

M1 - 5

ER -