Modulation of reflexive orienting to gaze direction by facial expressions

Fearful, surprised, happy, and angry facial expressions modulate gaze-oriented attention: Behavioral and ERP evidence

“…Indeed, although fast attention orienting toward the direction of another's gaze is expected regardless of facial expression, orienting to an object eliciting fear should be even faster, given that the object being looked-at is likely to be a threat. In accordance with this idea and with previous studies, we found an increased GOE for fearful compared to neutral faces (Fox et al, 2007;Graham et al, 2010;Mathews et al 2003;Neath et al, 2013;Tipples, 2006). As outlined in the introduction, failure by some studies to find such a GOE increase for fearful compared to neutral faces could be attributed to the use of a too short SOA (e.g., Bayless et al, 2011;Galfano et al, 2011), the use of a static rather than dynamic cue (e.g., Hietanen & Leppanen, 2003), or the use of a discrimination task rather than a localization task (e.g., Mathews et al 2003 in low anxious; Holmes et al, 2010).…”

“…This is the first gaze cuing study showing a modulation of the congruency effect on P1 amplitude with emotion. Previous studies using shorter SOAs failed to observe this finding not only on P1 amplitude but also at the behavioral level (Fichtenholtz et al, 2007;Galfano et al, 2011), suggesting that when emotional faces are used, longer SOAs are required to influence the spatial attention network and the processing of the target, in accordance with previous research (Graham et al, 2010). Further supporting the idea that integration of gaze and emotion takes time, P1 was delayed in the congruent compared to the incongruent condition in Exp.1, whereas previous studies using only neutral faces reported a shorter P1 latency in the congruent compared to the incongruent condition (Hietanen et al, 2008;Schuller & Rossion, 2001 or simply did not analyze P1 latency (Fichtenholtz et al, 2007(Fichtenholtz et al, , 2009Galfano et al, 2011;Holmes et al, 2010).…”

“…This classic GOE (see Frischen et al, 2007 for a review) reflects the enhanced spatial attention allocation at the gazed-at location. Better accuracy was also found for congruent than for incongruent trials, as previously reported (e.g., Graham et al, 2010). Most importantly, this GOE was enlarged when the cue displayed a fearful or surprised rather than a neutral expression and when it displayed an angry rather than a happy or neutral expression.…”

“…This robust Gaze Orienting Effect (GOE) was shown for letter discrimination, target detection, or localization tasks, for Stimulus Onset Asynchronies (SOAs) up to 700 ms, and when the cue is non-predictive or even counter-predictive of the target location (for a review, see Frischen, Bayliss, & Tipper, 2007 Many studies have investigated whether emotions modulate attention orienting by gaze. A GOE increase with fearful compared to neutral and/or happy faces has been reported and interpreted as reflecting the evolutionary advantage to orient rapidly in the direction of a potential threat (Bayless, Glover, Taylor, & Itier, 2011;Fox, Mathews, Calder, & Yiend, 2007;Graham, Friesen, Fichtenholtz, & LaBar, 2010;Mathews, Fox, Yiend, & Calder, 2003;Pecchinenda, Pes, Ferlazzo, & Zoccolotti, 2008;Putman, Hermans, & Van Honk, 2006;Tipples, 2006). However, some studies failed to report such a modulation (Fichtenholtz, Hopfinger, Graham, Detwiler, & LaBar, 2007;Galfano et al, 2011;Hietanen & Leppänen, 2003;Holmes, Mogg, Garcia, & Bradley, 2010).…”

“…However, some studies failed to report such a modulation (Fichtenholtz, Hopfinger, Graham, Detwiler, & LaBar, 2007;Galfano et al, 2011;Hietanen & Leppänen, 2003;Holmes, Mogg, Garcia, & Bradley, 2010). The lack of GOE modulation with fearful faces could be due to the use of short SOAs (e.g., Galfano et al, 2011 using 200 ms SOA), as Graham et al (2010) suggested that a minimum of 300 ms was needed for a full gaze and emotion integration. It could also result from the use of a more difficult discrimination task rather than a localization task (e.g., Holmes et al, 2010).…”