Anxiety meets fear in perception of dynamic expressive gaze.
This study investigated in 2 experiments whether reflexive cuing of attention that occurs after perception of a gaze cue is greater for fearful than for happy faces in normal participants, as hypothesized from a social neuroscience perspective. To increase neuroecological validity, dynamic stimulus presentation was used to display faces that simultaneously morphed from a neutral expression into a happy or fearful one and shifted eye gaze from the center to the periphery. Shifts of attention resulting from a natural fearful gaze were expected to be related to participants' anxiety traits, in agreement with the often found increased selective attention to threat in anxious participants. Both hypotheses were confirmed: Fearful faces induced stronger gaze cuing than happy faces, and the strength of this cuing effect was correlated to participants' anxiety levels. These results suggest a neural network, which integrates the processing of gaze, expression, and emotional states to adaptively prime vigilance under threatening circumstances.
Putman
Peter
P
Affective Neuroscience Section, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands. P.Putman@fss.uu.nl
Hermans
Erno
E
van Honk
Jack
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D011930:Reaction Time; D012938:Social Perception