Fear selectively modulates visual mental imagery and visual perception

Abstract

Emotions have been shown to modulate low-level visual processing of simple stimuli. In this study, we investigate whether emotions only modulate processing of visual representations created from direct visual inputs or whether they also modulate representations that underlie visual mental images. Our results demonstrate that when participants visualize or look at the global shape of written words (low-spatial-frequency visual information), the prior brief presentation of fearful faces enhances processing, whereas when participants visualize or look at details of written words (high-spatial-frequency visual information), the prior brief presentation of fearful faces impairs processing. This study demonstrates that emotions have similar effects on low-level processing of visual percepts and of internal representations created on the basis of information stored in long-term memory.

Keywords:

• Emotion
• Visual mental imagery
• Visual perception

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), under Grant R01 MH060734; any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NIH. We are grateful to Michael Galaburda for his help in creating stimuli, recruiting participants and collecting data.