Attention and Emotion

Our environment constantly confronts us with a large number of stimuli, some of which may pose threats and challenges that we need to respond to rapidly. Due to the capacity limits of the brain, only a subset of all the environmental stimuli that we encounter can be selected for more elaborate processing and subsequent access to other systems such as memory, motor control, and conscious awareness.

Several factors can have an impact on the competition for neural processing resources. Imagine you are searching for a specific object, for instance, your car keys. In this situation, perceiver-related factors such as expectations or voluntary behavioral goals can boost the neural representation of a stimulus via a top-down modulation of sensory pathways by frontoparietal regions. This voluntary selection control is referred to as endogenous attention. Conversely, stimulus-related factors, such as sudden and unexpected brightness or loudness, or stimulus uniqueness, may lead to enhanced responses in the sensory stream and trigger a reflexive orienting, which is referred to as exogenous attention capture.

[Page 69]Remarkably, the allocation of processing resources for perception and awareness also seems to be influenced by the emotional relevance of a stimulus. The adaptive function of emotions is to rapidly determine the value of a stimulus for well-being and survival and to coordinate appropriate behavioral responses. Emotionally significant stimuli should therefore be processed efficiently, even when they are not related to current voluntary goals, so that they can be noticed more readily and, once detected, become the focus of attention, evaluation, and action. This third selection mechanism, which may be designated as motivated or emotional attention, involves both exogenous and endogenous factors and is driven by specific neural mechanisms centered on the amygdala, a brain region critical for emotion processing and learning.

This entry will give an overview of how emotions can interact with attention to shape our perception and awareness of the environment, considering both behavioral studies and brain imaging evidence. The different kinds of effects that emotion can have on attention and perception will be illustrated, and the neural mechanisms that drive emotional attention will be discussed.