Search

Fearful facial expressions are nonverbal and biologically salient signals of potential threat that automatically hold, capture, and direct observers' attention. They are characterized by enlarged eye whites and dilated pupils, and fearful eyes alone are sufficient to capture attention. The morphological properties of the eye region, such as sclera exposure, are thought to play an important role in nonverbal communication. Specifically, increased sclera exposure associated with fearful expressions has been shown to moderate how observers' shift their attention toward the direction of another's gaze. Yet, the extent to which variability in sclera exposure possibly impacts the capture and hold of attention by fearful faces is untested. To address this, a sample of 249 adults completed a dot-probe task of selective attention with fearful and neutral faces. The results suggested that (1) fearful faces were prioritized over neutral faces (i.e., they captured and held attention), (2) greater sclera exposure at target locations facilitated reaction times, and (3) attention was held by greater sclera exposure of fearful faces at task irrelevant locations resulting in delayed disengagement. Collectively, the results indicate that fearful facial expressions and sclera exposure modulate spatial attention through independent and interactive mechanisms. Sclera exposure appears to be an important facilitator of nonverbal communication and perhaps represents an understudied variable in social cognition more broadly.

The neural correlates of anxious anticipation have been primarily studied with aversive and neutral stimuli. In this study, we examined the effect of valence on anticipation by using high arousal aversive and positive stimuli and a condition of uncertainty (i.e. either positive or aversive). The task consisted of predetermined cues warning participants of upcoming aversive, positive, 'uncertain' (either aversive or positive) and neutral movie clips. Anticipation of all affective clips engaged common regions including the anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, thalamus, caudate, inferior parietal and prefrontal cortex that are associated with emotional experience, sustained attention and appraisal. In contrast, the nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex, regions implicated in reward processing, were selectively engaged during anticipation of positive clips (depicting sexually explicit content) and the mid-insula, which has been linked to processing aversive stimuli, was selectively engaged during anticipation of aversive clips (depicting graphic medical procedures); these three areas were also activated during anticipation of 'uncertain' clips reflecting a broad preparatory response for both aversive and positive stimuli. These results suggest that a common circuitry is recruited in anticipation of affective clips regardless of valence, with additional areas preferentially engaged depending on whether expected stimuli are negative or positive.

Facial expressions are a basic form of non-verbal communication that convey important social information to others. The relevancy of this information is highlighted by findings that backward masked facial expressions facilitate spatial attention. This attention effect appears to be mediated through a neural network consisting of the amygdala, anterior cingulate, and visual cortex. However, a direct investigation of the neural time course associated with orienting to such stimuli has yet to be performed. In the current investigation, a backward masked fearful face dot-probe task was performed while ERPs were recorded. Reaction time results suggest that spatial attention is captured by backward masked fearful faces and attention is focused at the location of the fear stimulus. Masked right visual field fearful faces enhanced the N170 amplitudes of contralateral occipito-temporal electrodes. The rapid contralateral N170 enhancement was positively correlated with participants' behavioral index of spatial attention. Thus, backward masked fearful face-elicited spatial attention facilitates behavior and modulates the early stage of facial processing reflected by the N170. (Contains 4 figures.)