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Are coarse scales sufficient for fast detection of visual threat?

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Mermillod, Martial [Université Blaise Pascal, France] Droit-Volet, Sylvie [Université Blaise Pascal, France] Devaux, Damien [Université Blaise Pascal, France] Schaefer, Alexandre [University of Leeds, UK] Vermeulen, Nicolas [UCL]

It has recently been suggested that low-spatial-frequency information would provide rapid visual cues to the amygdala for basic but ultrarapid behavioral responses to dangerous stimuli. The present behavioral study investigated the role of different spatial-frequency channels in visually detecting dangerous stimuli belonging to living or nonliving categories. Subjects were engaged in a visual detection task involving dangerous stimuli, and subjects' behavioral responses were assessed in association with their fear expectations (induced by an aversive 90-dB white noise). Our results showed that, despite its crudeness, low-spatial-frequency information could constitute a sufficient signal for fast recognition of visual danger in a context of fear expectation. In addition, we found that this effect tended to be specific for living entities. These results were obtained despite a strong perceptual bias toward faster recognition of high-spatial-frequency stimuli under supraliminal perception durations. © 2010 The Author(s).

Document type Article de périodique (Journal article) – Article de recherche
Access type Accès restreint
Publication date 2010
Language Anglais
Journal information "Psychological Science" - Vol. 21, no. 10, p. 1429-1437 (2010)
Peer reviewed yes
Publisher Sage Publications, Inc. ((United States) Thousand Oaks)
issn 0956-7976
e-issn 1467-9280
Publication status Publié
Affiliation UCL - SSH/IPSY - Psychological Sciences Research Institute
Keywords Fear ; Fear ; Female ; Human ; Learning ; Male ; Pattern recognition ; Perception ; Perceptive discrimination ; Psychomotor performance ; Reaction time ; Perception ; Violence ; Adolescent ; Arousal ; Association Learning ; Color Perception ; Dangerous Behavior ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Fear ; Female ; Humans ; Spatial frequencies ; Male ; Pattern Recognition, Visual ; Perceptual Masking ; Psychomotor Performance ; Reaction Time ; Young Adult ; Threat detection ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Arousal ; Article ; Color vision
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Bibliographic reference Mermillod, Martial ; Droit-Volet, Sylvie ; Devaux, Damien ; Schaefer, Alexandre ; Vermeulen, Nicolas. Are coarse scales sufficient for fast detection of visual threat?. In: Psychological Science, Vol. 21, no. 10, p. 1429-1437 (2010)
Permanent URL http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/125976