Article

Perceiving a first target stimulus (T1) in a rapid serial visual presentation
stream results in a transient impairment in detecting a second target (T2). This
"attentional blink" is modulated by the emotional relevance of T1 and T2. The
present experiment examined the neural underpinnings of the emotional modulation
of the attentional blink. Behaviorally, the attentional blink was reduced for
emotional T2 while emotional T1 led to a prolonged attentional blink. Using
functional magnetic resonance imaging, we observed amygdala activation associated
with the reduced attentional blink for emotional T2 in the face of neutral T1.
The prolonged attentional blink following emotional T1 was correlated with
enhanced activity in a cortical network including the anterior cingulate cortex,
the insula and the orbitofrontal cortex. These results suggest that brain areas
previously implicated in rather reflexive emotional reactions are responsible for
the reduced attentional blink for emotional T2 whereas neural structures
previously related to higher level processing of emotional information mediate
the prolonged attentional blink following emotional T1.
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Langue : ANGLAIS