J Comp Neurol. 2016 Jun 1;524(8):1668-75. doi: 10.1002/cne.23859. Epub 2015 Aug 11.
Sennwald V1,2, Pool E1,2, Brosch T1,3, Delplanque S1,2, Bianchi-Demicheli F4, Sander D1,2.
Abstract
It has long been posited that among emotional stimuli, only negative threatening information modulates early shifts of attention. However, in the last few decades there has been an increase in research showing that attention is also involuntarily oriented toward positive rewarding stimuli such as babies, food, and erotic information. Because reproduction-related stimuli have some of the largest effects among positive stimuli on emotional attention, the present work reviews recent literature and proposes that the cognitive and cerebral mechanisms underlying the involuntarily attentional orientation toward threat-related information are also sensitive to erotic information. More specifically, the recent research suggests that both types of information involuntarily orient attention due to their concern relevance and that the amygdala plays an important role in detecting concern-relevant stimuli, thereby enhancing perceptual processing and influencing emotional attentional processes.
KEYWORDS: amygdala; erotic information; motivational relevance; reward; selective attention
PMID: 26179894
DOI: 10.1002/cne.23859
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