How emotions affect what we see

• Applicant: Dr. Petra Vetter
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2013 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 228537816

This project seeks to investigate how emotional valence influences visual perception and aims to identify the underlying neural circuits in the human brain. One of the most prominent brain areas involved in encoding emotional valence is the amygdala, and we will investigate how neural signals from the amygdala affect visual processing, particularly the processing in early visual cortex. We will focus on three main questions:1. Can emotional valence help resolve perceptual ambiguity and can we find neural evidence for this in both early visual cortex and the amygdala? Here we will use an ambiguous (bistable) visual stimulus in combination with classical fear conditioning, functional brain imaging (fMRI) and novel brain reading analysis techniques (multi-variate pattern classification) in healthy adults. 2. Does the amygdala play a causal role in mediating emotional valence to early visual cortex and thereby causing perceptual dominance? Here, we will employ fMRI and brain reading techniques in patients with amygdala damage and healthy controls.3. What are the perceptual consequences of emotional valence influencing early visual processing? This question will be addressed with a combination of psychophysics and fear conditioning in healthy adults. The project combines two different fields of cognitive neuroscience (emotion and vision) and gathers converging evidence from several methodologies. Thus, it has a significant potential to elucidate the neural underpinnings of why emotions make us see the world differently.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: France, USA
• Hosts: Professorin Dr. Marisa Carrasco; Professor Patrick Cavanagh, Ph.D.; Professorin Elizabeth A. Phelps, Ph.D.