Emotional body postures affect inhibitory control only when task-relevant

Abstract

A classical theoretical frame to interpret motor reactions to emotional stimuli is that such stimuli, particularly those threat-related, are processed preferentially, i.e., they are capable of capturing and grabbing attention automatically. Research has recently challenged this view, showing that the task relevance of emotional stimuli is crucial to having a reliable behavioral effect. Such evidence indicated that emotional facial expressions do not automatically influence motor responses in healthy young adults, but they do so only when intrinsically pertinent to the ongoing subject’s goals. Given the theoretical relevance of these findings, it is essential to assess their generalizability to different, socially relevant emotional stimuli such as emotional body postures. To address this issue, we compared the performance of 36 right-handed participants in two different versions of a Go/No-go task. In the Emotional Discrimination task, participants were required to withhold their responses at the display of emotional body postures (fearful or happy) and to move at the presentation of neutral postures. Differently, in the control task, the same images were shown, but participants had to respond according to the color of the actor/actress’ t-shirt, disregarding the emotional content. Results showed that participants made more commission errors (instances in which they moved even though the No-go signal was presented) for happy than fearful body postures in the Emotional Discrimination task. However, this difference disappeared in the control task. Such evidence indicates that, like facial emotion, emotional body expressions do not influence motor control automatically, but only when they are task-relevant.

Investigating the impact of surgical masks on behavioral reactions to facial emotions in the COVID-19 era

“…We found that responses to emotional stimuli were influenced only in the EDT, i.e., when the emotional content of the stimuli was relevant, but not in the GDT, i.e., when valence was task-irrelevant. Thus, in line with our previous evidence ( Mirabella, 2018 ; Mancini et al, 2020 , 2022 ; Calbi et al, 2022 ; Mirabella et al, 2023 ; Montalti and Mirabella, 2023 ), we showed that only when the emotional content was relevant for providing the correct responses it also affected the behavioral reactions of participants. However, responses to facial emotions in the EDT markedly differ between unmasked and masked conditions.…”

“…Conversely, an entomologist, actively seeking spiders for his/her studies, will react joyfully, entailing an approach-oriented behavior. The appraisal theories received strong support from a recent series of studies that employed an innovative Go/No-go paradigm developed by Mirabella and colleagues ( Mirabella, 2018 ; Mancini et al, 2020 , 2022 ; Calbi et al, 2022 ; Mirabella et al, 2023 ; Montalti and Mirabella, 2023 ). In this experimental design, the same group of participants is engaged in two versions of the Go/No-go task, differing only in the instruction given to participants.…”

“…In the emotional version (the Emotional Discrimination Task, EDT), participants have to move when they see an emotional face and withhold the response when it is neutral, or vice versa. In the control version, participants were instructed to respond according to other images’ features, such as the poser’s gender ( Mirabella, 2018 ; Mancini et al, 2020 , 2022 ; Mirabella et al, 2023 ; Montalti and Mirabella, 2023 ) or the t-shirt’s color ( Calbi et al, 2022 ). Overall, Mirabella and colleagues’ findings unveiled that emotional valence exerted a significant influence on motor planning ( Mirabella, 2018 ; Mancini et al, 2020 ; Mirabella et al, 2023 ; Montalti and Mirabella, 2023 ), and inhibitory control ( Calbi et al, 2022 ; Mancini et al, 2022 ), provided that this stimulus dimension is relevant for task instructions, i.e., in the EDT.…”

“…In the control version, participants were instructed to respond according to other images’ features, such as the poser’s gender ( Mirabella, 2018 ; Mancini et al, 2020 , 2022 ; Mirabella et al, 2023 ; Montalti and Mirabella, 2023 ) or the t-shirt’s color ( Calbi et al, 2022 ). Overall, Mirabella and colleagues’ findings unveiled that emotional valence exerted a significant influence on motor planning ( Mirabella, 2018 ; Mancini et al, 2020 ; Mirabella et al, 2023 ; Montalti and Mirabella, 2023 ), and inhibitory control ( Calbi et al, 2022 ; Mancini et al, 2022 ), provided that this stimulus dimension is relevant for task instructions, i.e., in the EDT. Their findings suggest that threatening stimuli, such as angry and fearful expressions, hold subjects’ attention stronger than happy faces, but only when the emotional connotation of the stimuli aligns with the participants’ goals.…”

Perception and discrimination of real-life emotional vocalizations in early blind individuals

“…The task may have been therefore too demanding hiding possible group differences. Prior evidence suggests that emotional stimuli may influence behavior only when their emotional content is relevant to the participants’ goal given the context in which they operate (e.g., Calbi et al, 2022 ; Mancini et al, 2022 ; Mirabella et al, 2023 ). Accordingly, future studies may test whether “contextualized” vocalizations elicit different reactions in blind and sighted participants, possibly also employing more nuanced vocalizations [see Cowen et al (2019) ] as well as physiological indexes of emotional arousal (e.g., skin conductance response, heart rate).…”