en
Scientific article
English

Visual search for facial expressions of emotion is less affected in simultanagnosia

Published inCortex, vol. 44, no. 1, p. 46-53
Publication date2008
Abstract

Evidence in healthy human subjects has suggested that angry faces may be enhanced during spatial processing, perhaps even "popping-out" of a crowd. These contentions have remained controversial, but two recent reports in patients suffering from unilateral spatial neglect have lent some support to these views, suggesting that emotional faces capture attention more efficiently than neutral stimuli in the neglected field. Here, we investigate this phenomenon in a patient suffering from severe Balint's syndrome and consequent simultanagnosia. Using a visual search paradigm, we studied differences in the detection of angry, happy and neutral faces, as well as non-emotional stimuli. Results revealed that emotionally expressive faces, in particular anger, were detected more efficiently than other stimuli. These findings corroborate claims that facial expressions of emotion constitute a specific category of stimuli that attract attention more effectively, and are processed prior to attentional engagement.

Keywords
  • Agnosia/complications/pathology/psychology
  • Anger
  • Ataxia/complications/pathology/psychology
  • Attention/physiology
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Eye Movements/physiology
  • Facial Expression
  • Female
  • Field Dependence-Independence
  • Humans
  • Matched-Pair Analysis
  • Middle Aged
  • Occipital Lobe/pathology
  • Parietal Lobe/pathology
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual/physiology
  • Perceptual Disorders/complications/pathology/psychology
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Recognition (Psychology)
  • Reference Values
  • Social Perception
  • Stroke/complications
  • Syndrome
Citation (ISO format)
PEGNA, Alan, CALDARA-SCHNETZER, Anne-Sarah, KHATEB, Asaid. Visual search for facial expressions of emotion is less affected in simultanagnosia. In: Cortex, 2008, vol. 44, n° 1, p. 46–53. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2006.02.001
Main files (1)
Article (Accepted version)
accessLevelRestricted
Identifiers
ISSN of the journal0010-9452
622views
3downloads

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Creation2009.02.26. 오후 4:29:00
First validation2009.02.26. 오후 4:29:00
Update time2023.03.14. 오후 3:02:47
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