Moods Influence How We View the World

[sharon sanders]

Positive moods allow us greater interaction with our environment. Negative moods tend to give us "tunnel" vision.


[SIZE=-1]Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2] Opposing Influences of Affective State Valence on Visual Cortical Encoding[/SIZE]
<nobr>Taylor W. Schmitz,¹^,2</nobr> <nobr>Eve De Rosa,¹^,2^,3</nobr> and <nobr>Adam K. Anderson¹^,2^,3</nobr>
¹Department of Psychology, ²University of Toronto Neuroscience Program, and ³Rotman Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3, Canada
<!-- null --> Correspondence should be addressed to Taylor W. Schmitz, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada. Email: taylor@aclab.ca<script type="text/javascript"><!-- var u = "taylor", d = "aclab.ca"; document.getElementById("em0").innerHTML = '<a href="mailto:' + u + '@' + d + '">' + u + '@' + d + '<\/a>'//--></script>
<!-- ABS --> Positive and negative emotional states are thought to have originatedfrom fundamentally opposing approach and avoidance behaviors.Furthermore, affective valence has been hypothesized to exertopposing biases in cognitive control. Here we examined withfunctional magnetic resonance imaging whether the opposing influencesof positive and negative states extend to perceptual encodingin the visual cortices. Based on prior behavioral research,we hypothesized that positive states would broaden and negativestates would narrow visual field of view (FOV). Positive, neutral,and negative states were induced on alternating blocks. To indexFOV, observers then viewed brief presentations (300 ms) of face/placeconcentric center/surround stimuli on interleaved blocks. Centralfaces were attended, rendering the place surrounds unattended.As face and place information was presented at different visualeccentricities, our physiological metric of FOV was a valence-dependentmodulation of place processing in the parahippocampal placearea (PPA). Consistent with our hypotheses, positive affectivestates increased and negative states decreased PPA responseto novel places as well as adaptation to repeated places. Individualdifferences in self-reported positive and negative affect correlatedinversely with PPA encoding of peripheral places, as well aswith activation in the mesocortical prefrontal cortex and amygdala.

Psychophysiological interaction analyses further demonstratedthat valence-dependent responses in the PPA arose from opponentcoupling with extrafoveal regions of the primary visual cortexduring positive and negative states. These findings collectivelysuggest that affective valence differentially biases gatingof early visual inputs, fundamentally altering the scope ofperceptual encoding.