Threat modulates neural responses to looming visual stimuli

Vagnoni, Eleonora; Lourenco, Stella F.; Longo, Matthew R.

doi:10.1111/ejn.12998

Cited by 38 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 74 publications

(134 reference statements)

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“…Like PPS representations that support non‐defensive behaviors, there is evidence that representations of PPS are flexible in defensive contexts. For example, Vagnoni, Andreanidou, Lourenco, and Longo (), Vagnoni, Lourenco, and Longo (), Vagnoni, Lourenco, and Longo () have reported that looming images of threatening stimuli (i.e., snakes and spiders) were judged as arriving sooner than nonthreatening stimuli (i.e., rabbits and butterflies) on a time‐to‐contact (TTC) task. One interpretation is that this effect could result from participants experiencing larger representations of PPS in the presence of evolutionary threatening animals as compared to nonthreatening animals, leading them to judge the former as making contact with themselves sooner.…”

Section: The Defensive Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is peripersonal space? An examination of unresolved empirical issues and emerging findings

Hunley

Lourenco

2018

WIRES Cognitive Science

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Findings from diverse fields of study, including neuroscience, psychology, zoology, and sociology, demonstrate that human and non-human primates maintain a representation of the space immediately surrounding the body, known as peripersonal space (PPS). However, progress in this field has been hampered by the lack of an agreed upon definition of PPS. Since the beginning of its formal study, scientists have argued that PPS plays a crucial role in both defensive and non-defensive actions. Yet consensus is lacking about the cognitive and neural instantiation of these functions. In particular, researchers have begun to ask whether a single, unified system of spatial-attentional resources supports both the defensive and non-defensive functions of PPS or, rather, whether there are multiple, independent systems. Moreover, there are open questions about the specificity of PPS. For example: Does PPS dissociate from other well-known phenomena such as personal space and the body schema? Finally, emerging research has brought attention to important questions about individual differences in the flexibility of PPS and the distribution of PPS in front compared to behind the body. In this advanced review, we shed light on questions about the nature of PPS, offering answers when the research permits or providing recommendations for achieving answers in future research. In so doing, we lay the groundwork for a comprehensive definition of PPS. This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of Cognition Psychology > Attention Psychology > Perception and Psychophysics Neuroscience > Plasticity.

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Section: The Defensive Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is peripersonal space? An examination of unresolved empirical issues and emerging findings

Hunley

Lourenco

2018

WIRES Cognitive Science

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“…Stimuli were the same as used in our previous experiments (Vagnoni et al 2012 , 2015 ), namely 160 colour photographs collected from the internet, 40 from each of the four categories (snakes, spiders, butterflies, and rabbits). Images were cropped and resized using Adobe Photoshop CS5 (Adobe Systems, San Jose, CA).…”

Section: Experiments 1: Does Reduced Ability Of Movement Influence Timmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although looming has been viewed as a simple optical effect, the semantic content of objects approaching our bodies and our individual differences related to fear modulates our responses. For example, participants underestimate the arrival time of threatening, relative to non-threatening, stimuli (Brendel et al 2012 ; Vagnoni et al 2012 , 2015 ). Moreover, these effects are modulated by the specific fears of observers, with people more fearful of threatening stimuli underestimating more their arrival time (Vagnoni et al 2012 , 2015 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, participants underestimate the arrival time of threatening, relative to non-threatening, stimuli (Brendel et al 2012 ; Vagnoni et al 2012 , 2015 ). Moreover, these effects are modulated by the specific fears of observers, with people more fearful of threatening stimuli underestimating more their arrival time (Vagnoni et al 2012 , 2015 ). This evidence is in line with and expands the view of the looming underestimation as an adaptive response (Neuhoff et al 2012 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Action ability modulates time-to-collision judgments

et al. 2017

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Time-to-collision (TTC) underestimation has been interpreted as an adaptive response that allows observers to have more time to engage in a defensive behaviour. This bias seems, therefore, strongly linked to action preparation. There is evidence that the observer’s physical fitness modulates the underestimation effect so that people who need more time to react (i.e. those with less physical fitness) show a stronger underestimation effect. Here we investigated whether this bias is influenced by the momentary action capability of the observers. In the first experiment, participants estimated the time-to-collision of threatening or non-threatening stimuli while being mildly immobilized (with a chin rest) or while standing freely. Having reduced the possibility of movement led participants to show more underestimation of the approaching stimuli. However, this effect was not stronger for threatening relative to non-threatening stimuli. The effect of the action capability found in the first experiment could be interpreted as an expansion of peripersonal space (PPS). In the second experiment, we thus investigated the generality of this effect using an established paradigm to measure the size of peripersonal space. Participants bisected lines from different distances while in the chin rest or standing freely. The results replicated the classic left-to-right gradient in lateral spatial attention with increasing viewing distance, but no effect of immobilization was found. The manipulation of the momentary action capability of the observers influenced the participants’ performance in the TTC task but not in the line bisection task. These results are discussed in relation to the different functions of PPS.

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“…Within this framework, theta oscillations are pronounced ∼300 ms after stimulus onset and associated with episodic memory processes (Klimesch, 1996; Klimesch et al , 1997, 2006). In addition, other research modeled threatening contexts more specifically and found alpha band activity to be modulated by threatening stimuli (Vagnoni et al , 2015) whereas anterior midcingulate cortex theta band activity is associated with the recall of conditioned fear (Mueller et al , 2014). However, theta oscillations are sometimes associated with arousal during anticipation of noxious stimuli (Pape and Pare, 2010) suggesting broader roles of the respective frequency bands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Pavlovian conditioning: Short- and long-term effects and the role of anxiety and depressive symptoms

Wiggert

Wilhelm

Boger

et al. 2016

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

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Today’s stressors largely arise from social interactions rather than from physical threat. However, the dominant laboratory model of emotional learning relies on physical stimuli (e.g. electric shock) whereas adequate models of social conditioning are missing, possibly due to more subtle and multilayered biobehavioral responses to such stimuli. To fill this gap, we acquired a broad set of measures during conditioning to negative social unconditioned stimuli, also taking into account long-term maintenance of conditioning and inter-individual differences. Fifty-nine healthy participants underwent a classical conditioning task with videos of actors expressing disapproving (US-neg) or neutral (US-neu) statements. Static images of the corresponding actors with a neutral facial expression served as CS+ and CS−, predicting US-neg and US-neu, respectively. Autonomic and facial-muscular measures confirmed differential unconditioned responding whereas experiential CS ratings, event-related potentials, and evoked theta oscillations confirmed differential conditioned responding. Conditioning was maintained at 1 month and 1 year follow-ups on experiential ratings, especially in individuals with elevated anxiety and depressive symptoms, documenting the efficiency of social conditioning and its clinical relevance. This novel, ecologically improved conditioning paradigm uncovered a remarkably efficient multi-layered social learning mechanism that may represent a risk factor for anxiety and depression.

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Threat modulates neural responses to looming visual stimuli

Abstract: word count: 231Threat and Looming Stimuli 2

Cited by 38 publications

References 74 publications

What is peripersonal space? An examination of unresolved empirical issues and emerging findings

What is peripersonal space? An examination of unresolved empirical issues and emerging findings

Action ability modulates time-to-collision judgments

Social Pavlovian conditioning: Short- and long-term effects and the role of anxiety and depressive symptoms

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