The aim of this study was to evaluate emotional and reward-related influences on attentional and perceptual mechanisms within the same design. We paired faces depicting a positive or neutral emotion with a positive or a null reward and used these stimuli as distractors in a subsequent test task. Behaviourally, the presence of a previously rewarded distractor decreased the accuracy in the test task. Physiologically, the presentation of positive faces induced a bilateral activation of the occipital poles, while previously rewarded distractors led to increased activity of the left anterior insula...