Emotion Unchained: Facial Expression Modulates Gaze Cueing under Cognitive Load.

ABSTRACT: Direction of eye gaze cues spatial attention, and typically this cueing effect is not modulated by the expression of a face unless top-down processes are explicitly or implicitly involved. To investigate the role of cognitive control on gaze cueing by emotional faces, participants performed a gaze cueing task with happy, angry, or neutral faces under high (i.e., counting backward by 7) or low cognitive load (i.e., counting forward by 2). Results show that high cognitive load enhances gaze cueing effects for angry facial expressions. In addition, cognitive load reduces gaze cueing for neutral faces, whereas happy facial expressions and gaze affected object preferences regardless of load. This evidence clearly indicates a differential role of cognitive control in processing gaze direction an

SUBMITTER: Pecchinenda A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5154609 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature