Threat imminence modulates neural gain in attention and motor relevant brain circuits in humans

Echegaray, Javier de; Moratti, Stephan

doi:10.1111/psyp.13849

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 71 publications

(119 reference statements)

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“…Consistent with the idea of motivated attention, heightened sensory engagement to threatening cues might reflect facilitated perceptual processing as an index of selective attention (Bradley, 2009; Lang et al, 1997; Miskovic & Keil, 2012). Together with our response patterns for heart rate decelerations these results are well in line with a recent study by Echegaray and Moratti (2021), showing on the individual level that heart rate deceleration covaried with increased neural processing of visual input during passive viewing of emotional pictures. In addition, the authors could demonstrate that cardiovascular and neural sensory responses were associated with reduced beta‐band desynchronization in pre‐motor and motor areas, supporting the notion that depending on threat‐imminence orienting is characterized by motor inhibition and neural gain in attention circuits (Roelofs, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

The effect of inherently threatening contexts on visuocortical engagement to conditioned threat

2022

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Fear and anxiety are crucial for adaptive responding in life-threatening situations. Whereas fear is a phasic response to an acute threat accompanied by selective attention, anxiety is characterized by a sustained feeling of apprehension and hypervigilance during situations of potential threat. In the current literature, fear and anxiety are usually considered mutually exclusive, with distinct neural underpinnings. However, there is accumulating evidence that challenges this distinction between fear and anxiety, and simultaneous activation of fear-and anxiety networks has been reported.Therefore, the current study experimentally tested potential interactions between fear and anxiety.Fifty-two healthy participants completed a differential fear conditioning paradigm followed by a test phase in which the conditioned stimuli were presented in front of threatening or neutral contextual images. To capture defense system activation, we recorded subjective (threat, USexpectancy), physiological (skin conductance, heart rate), and visuocortical (steady-state visual evoked potentials) responses to the conditioned stimuli as a function of contextual threat. Results demonstrated successful fear conditioning in all measures. In addition, threat and US-expectancy ratings, cardiac deceleration, and visuocortical activity were enhanced for fear cues presented in threatening compared to neutral contexts. These results are in line with an additive or interactive rather than an exclusive model of fear and anxiety, indicating facilitated defensive behavior to imminent danger in situations of potential threat.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

The effect of inherently threatening contexts on visuocortical engagement to conditioned threat

2022

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“…Source‐space estimation analysis on whole brain activity showed that at early latencies significant differences were detectable between ‘Fear’ and ‘Neutral’ EBL processing in sensorimotor areas only in the beta band. Indeed, in the mu‐alpha band, significant differences between ‘Fear’ and ‘Neutral were detectable mainly in the posterior cortex implicated in visual processing and attention (de Echegaray & Moratti, 2021) and particularly at the level of the left inferior occipital gyrus, the fusiform gyrus and the right posterior parietal lobe (areas compatible with the findings showed in (Meeren et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Early modulations of neural oscillations during the processing of emotional body language

Botta,

Zhao,

Samogin

et al. 2023

Psychophysiology

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The processing of threat‐related emotional body language (EBL) has been shown to engage sensorimotor cortical areas early on and induce freezing in the observers' motor system, particularly when observing fearful EBL. To provide insights into the interplay between somatosensory and motor areas during observation of EBL, here, we used high‐density electroencephalography (hd‐EEG) in healthy humans while they observed EBL stimuli involving fearful and neutral expressions. To capture early sensorimotor brain response, we focused on P100 fronto‐central event‐related potentials (ERPs) and event‐related desynchronization/synchronization (ERD/ERS) in the mu‐alpha (8–13 Hz) and lower beta (13–20 Hz) bands over the primary motor (M1) and somatosensory (S1) cortices. Source‐level ERP and ERD/ERS analyses were conducted using eLORETA. Results revealed higher P100 amplitudes in motor and premotor channels for ‘Neutral’ compared with ‘Fear’. Additionally, analysis of ERD/ERS showed increased beta band desynchronization in M1 for ‘Neutral’, and the opposite pattern in S1. Source‐level estimation showed significant differences between conditions mainly observed in the beta band over sensorimotor areas. These findings provide high‐temporal resolution evidence suggesting that seeing fearful EBL induces early activation of somatosensory areas, which in turn could suppress M1 activity. These findings highlight early dynamics within the observer's sensorimotor system and hint at a sensorimotor mechanism supporting freezing during the processing of EBL.

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“…Additionally, further examination of beta activation as a measure of motor‐action planning is still needed and could prove useful in motivation research. Specifically, examining beta activity provides a venue to investigate an objective physiological precursor to motivated actions which can complement extant theories of motivation (Di Domenico & Ryan, 2017; Gable & Harmon‐Jones, 2010b; Ryan & Deci, 2000a, 2000b), as well as inform new questions and developing theories relevant to motivational research and additional physiological systems of movement (de Echegaray & Moratti, 2021; Kelley et al, 2019; Legault & Inzlicht, 2013; Locke & Schattke, 2019; Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, rigidity and bradykinesia in Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients relate to greater beta activity at rest (Brown, 2007; Hammond et al, 2007), something which PD patients exhibit at chronically high levels (Uhlhaas & Singer, 2006). Overall, ample evidence suggests beta activity is an index of motor readiness, as it is a neural indicator of future motor movements toward resources (Doyle et al, 2005; Jenkinson & Brown, 2011), environmental cues that ultimately attract motivated attentional processing (Gable, Threadgill, & Adams, 2016), or linked to other physiological systems that facilitate movement when attending to events that implicate survival (e.g., heart rate; de Echegaray & Moratti, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivated for movement: Beta activation over the motor cortex resulting from intrinsic and extrinsic motivators

2022

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Past work on motivation has primarily studied dichotomous distinctions of motivation (e.g., extrinsic or intrinsic). However, focusing on the overall motivational intensity may be better at accentuating the unique differences within and between varying motivators as it pertains to the impetus to act. Specifically, motivational intensity influences neural patterns of beta band frequency (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30) as measured by electroencephalography (EEG) that enable motor-action preparation, a neural correlate of motivated movement. The primary aim of across three experiments was to investigate neural motor-action preparation to modified flanker tasks within achievement (Experiment 1), autonomous (Experiment 2), and extrinsic vs. intrinsic (Experiment 3) motivational contexts. Experiment 1 revealed greater motor-action preparation for challenging trial cues and did not differ in behavioral attentional and performance measures across both trial types.Experiment 2 revealed no significant difference in motor-action preparation, did not differ in behavioral attentional narrowing and had worse behavioral performance in high autonomy relative to low autonomy trials. Experiment 3 revealed greater motor-action preparation for challenging trial cues, did not differ in behavioral attentional narrowing and had a faster performance for reward trials relative to high autonomy trials. These findings suggest motivators of the same category (i.e., intrinsic) may differ in motivational strength, as suggested by a neurophysiological measure of immediate motivated movement planning.

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Threat imminence modulates neural gain in attention and motor relevant brain circuits in humans

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

Cited by 8 publications

References 71 publications

The effect of inherently threatening contexts on visuocortical engagement to conditioned threat

The effect of inherently threatening contexts on visuocortical engagement to conditioned threat

Early modulations of neural oscillations during the processing of emotional body language

Motivated for movement: Beta activation over the motor cortex resulting from intrinsic and extrinsic motivators

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