Reorienting of spatial attention in gaze cuing is reflected in N2pc

Abstract

Research has shown that gaze cuing of attention is reflected in the modulation of P1 and N1 components of ERPs time-locked to target onset. Studies focusing on cue-locked analyses have produced mixed results. The present study examined ERP reflections of gaze cuing in further detail by recording electric brain activity from the scalp of participants engaged in a spatial cuing paradigm with noninformative gaze cues embedded in fearful, disgusted, or neutral faces. Unlike previous work, we focused on N2pc, a recent ERP index of attention shifting over space. Behavioral data showed that gaze-driven orienting was not influenced by facial expression. Importantly, electrophysiological data showed a significant amplitude modulation of the N2pc time-locked to target onset as a function of cue–target spatial congruence. This pattern, however, was independent of facial expression. The results are interpreted as evidence that N2pc can be used as a marker of reorienting of attention in spatially incongruent trials due to gaze cuing. The overall findings support the idea that the effects of facial expression on gaze cuing are weak and likely context-dependent.

Keywords:

• Gaze cuing
• Emotion
• Attention
• N2pc

Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by grants from the University of Padova to MS, CU, and GG. We are grateful to Jean Decety and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on a previous draft of the manuscript.

Notes

¹Because there is evidence that the magnified gaze-driven orienting effect in fearful faces may be particularly visible in high-anxious individuals (e.g., Mathews, Fox, Yiend, & Calder, 2003), our participants were also administered the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1983). Because neither behavioral nor ERP data showed any correlation with the individual scores of the questionnaire, these analyses will not be reported or discussed further (also see Holmes et al., 2010).