The influence of anxiety on the initial selection of emotional faces presented in binocular rivalry.
Neurocognitive theories of anxiety predict that threat-related information can be evaluated before attentional selection, and can influence behaviour differentially in high anxious compared to low anxious individuals. We investigate this further by presenting emotional and neutral faces in an adapted binocular rivalry paradigm. We show that the initial selection of emotional faces presented in binocular rivalry is highly influenced by self-reported state and trait anxiety-level. Heightened anxiety was correlated with increased perception of angry and fearful faces, and decreased perception of happy expressions. These results are consistent with recent evidence of involuntary selection of threat in anxiety.
Gray
Katie L H
KL
School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton S017 1BJ, UK. klhg103@soton.ac.uk
Adams
Wendy J
WJ
Garner
Matthew
M
D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012938:Social Perception; D015357:Vision Disparity / Q000502:physiology*; D015348:Vision, Binocular / Q000502:physiology*