title: Attentional disengagement is modulated by the offset of unpleasant pictures: a saccadic reaction time study.
abstract: We studied the influence of passively viewing a picture on saccade latencies to peripheral targets. Thirty-two volunteers were instructed to look at a central picture, wait for the onset of a peripheral target, and execute a saccade toward it as quickly as possible - saccadic reaction time (SRT). The central picture (neutral or unpleasant) could be turned off simultaneously with target onset (the no-gap condition) or 200ms prior to target onset (the gap-200 condition). We found that saccade latencies were influenced by emotional valence and condition. In the no-gap condition, SRTs were longer after viewing unpleasant pictures. In the gap-200 condition, the pattern was reversed, and unpleasant pictures induced shorter SRTs in relation to neutral pictures. Furthermore, the influence of unpleasant pictures gradually decreased when images were re-exposed to the participants - affective habituation. The results are discussed in terms of attentional avoidance and disengagement from unpleasant emotional pictures.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Humanidade e Saúde (Campus Rio das Ostras), Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil. Electronic address: walter@vm.uff.br.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Machado-Pinheiro
authors.forename: Aydamari
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Faria
authors.forename: Filipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Braga
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Guerra
authors.forename: Pandelis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Perakakis
authors.forename: Ariane Leão
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Caldas
authors.forename: Izabela
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mocaiber
authors.forename: Letícia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: Mirtes Garcia
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: Eliane
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Volchan
authors.forename: Jaime
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vila
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Affective; Attention; Attentional avoidance; Disengagement; Emotion; Saccadic reaction time