A gender- and sexual orientation-dependent spatial attentional effect of invisible images

Abstract

Human observers are constantly bombarded with a vast amount of information. Selective attention helps us to quickly process what is important while ignoring the irrelevant. In this study, we demonstrate that information that has not entered observers' consciousness, such as interocularly suppressed (invisible) erotic pictures, can direct the distribution of spatial attention. Furthermore, invisible erotic information can either attract or repel observers' spatial attention depending on their gender and sexual orientation. While unaware of the suppressed pictures, heterosexual males' attention was attracted to invisible female nudes, heterosexual females' attention was attracted to invisible male nudes, gay males behaved similarly to heterosexual females, and gay͞bisexual females performed in-between heterosexual males and females.awareness ͉ interocular suppression ͉ attention S alient events in a visual scene can attract visual attention and subsequently enhance information processing at the attended location (1-3). Intuitively, in order for a ''cue'' to attract visual spatial attention, the ''cue'' needs to be perceived by the observer. However, it makes ecological and evolutionary sense if important events can influence observers' spatial attention even before the observer becomes aware of the event. Recent studies have shown that subliminal presentation of emotional stimuli can modulate activity of the amygdala (4, 5), a subcortical nucleus that is centrally involved in emotional information processing. Emotionally salient information was also shown to receive enhanced processing under limited attention, such as during the attentional blink, with the amygdala playing a critical role (6). One natural question is whether activation of the emotional system also directs observers' attention to the stimulus in the absence of awareness. For example, if highly attractive, aversive, or threatening information comes from one side of the visual field and it subsequently activates emotional brain systems without awareness, will this lead to a reorienting of spatial attention? Activation of the amygdala may or may not carry specific spatial information. However, what is the value of processing important information if it does not lead to specific changes in observers' attentional states and preparation for action?To investigate the ability of invisible information to guide spatial attention, we combined two paradigms: interocular suppression to render stimuli invisible (5, 7, 8) and a modified version of the Posner cuing paradigm to test the effect of spatially directed attention (1-3). In the interocular suppression paradigm, a pair of highcontrast dynamic noise patches are presented to both sides of a fixation point in one eye, and a test picture and its scrambled control are presented to the fellow eye in spatial locations corresponding to the noise patches. Because of strong interocular suppression, the intact meaningful image and its scrambled control remain invisible for the period they are presented. If the suppr...

Bodily self-consciousness, and the primacy of self related signals such as the 1stperson perspective and self-location

“…In other words, it should be possible to attend to an object without awareness of it, but difficult to be aware of an object without attention to it. This pattern broadly matches the literature on the relationship between attention and awareness (e.g., Dehaene et al, 2006;Jiang et al, 2006;Kentridge et al, 2004;Koch & Tsuchiya, 2007;Lamme, 2004;Naccache et al, 2002). Koch and Tsuchiya (2007) argued that, qualitatively, it seems possible to be aware of stimuli at the periphery of attention, and therefore awareness must be possible with minimal attention.…”

“…The distinction between awareness and attention has been studied before (e.g., Dehaene, Changeux, Naccache, Sackur, & Sergent, 2006;Jiang, Costello, Fang, Huang, & He, 2006;Kentridge, Heywood, & Weiskrantz, 2004;Koch & Tsuchiya, 2007;Lamme, 2004;Naccache, Blandin, & Dehaene, 2002). The two almost always covary, but under some circumstances it is possible to attend to a stimulus and at the same time be unaware of the stimulus (Jiang et al, 2006;Kentridge et al, 2004;Naccache et al, 2002).…”

Melodic sound enhances visual awareness of congruent musical notes, but only if you can read music

“…After all, in other circumstances suppression durations of a visual stimulus are impacted by the properties of that stimulus, including its physical characteristics (9), its configural properties (30,66), its affective connotation (67,68), its lexical familiarity (32), and its social connotation (69). However, in all these instances the features defining the suppressed stimulus are plausibly being registered and remain available for analysis (70), albeit with reduced fidelity or signal strength (34).…”

Threefoldness

“…Second, we attend to some but not all the objects and properties we see (Mack and Rock 1998;Simmons and Chabris 1999). The relation between these two distinctions is complicated because the relation between attention and consciousness Threefoldness 165 is complicated: it is not clear whether attention is necessarily conscious, for example (probably not, see Cohen et al 2012;Jiang et al 2006;Kentridge et al 1999Kentridge et al , 2008. In order to bypass these worries, I will focus on the distinction between attending to something we see and not attending.…”