No fingers, no SNARC? Neither the finger counting starting hand, nor its stability robustly affect the SNARC effect.

The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect (i.e., faster left/right sided responses to small/large magnitude numbers, respectively) is considered to be strong evidence for the link between numbers and space. Studies have shown considerable variation in this effect. Among the factors determining individual differences in the SNARC effect is the hand an individual uses to start the finger counting sequence. Left-starters show a stronger and less variable SNARC effect than right-starters. This observation has been used as an argument for the embodied nature of the SNARC effect. For this to be the case, one must assume that the finger counting sequence (especially the starting hand) is stable over time. Subsequent studies challenged the view that the SNARC differs depending on the finger counting starting hand. At the same time, it has been pointed out that the temporal stability of the finger counting starting hand should not be taken for granted. Thus, in this preregistered study, we aimed to replicate the difference in the SNARC between left- and right-starters and explore the relationship between the self-reported temporal stability of the finger counting starting hand and the SNARC effect. In line with the embodied cognition account, left-starters who declare more temporarily stable finger counting habits should reveal a stronger SNARC effect. Results of the preregistered analysis did not show the difference between left- and right-starters. However, further exploratory analysis provided weak evidence that this might be the case. Lastly, we found no evidence for the relationship between finger counting starting hand stability and the SNARC effect. Overall, these results challenge the view on the embodied nature of the SNARC effect.

Restricting movements of lower face leaves recognition of emotional vocalizations intact but introduces a valence positivity bias.

Blocking facial mimicry can disrupt recognition of emotion stimuli. Many previous studies have focused on facial expressions, and it remains unclear whether this generalises to other types of emotional expressions. Furthermore, by emphasizing categorical recognition judgments, previous studies neglected the role of mimicry in other processing stages, including dimensional (valence and arousal) evaluations. In the study presented herein, we addressed both issues by asking participants to listen to brief non-verbal vocalizations of four emotion categories (anger, disgust, fear, happiness) and neutral sounds under two conditions. One of the conditions included blocking facial mimicry by creating constant tension on the lower face muscles, in the other condition facial muscles remained relaxed. After each stimulus presentation, participants evaluated sounds' category, valence, and arousal. Although the blocking manipulation did not influence emotion recognition, it led to higher valence ratings in a non-category-specific manner, including neutral sounds. Our findings suggest that somatosensory and motor feedback play a role in the evaluation of affect vocalizations, perhaps introducing a directional bias. This distinction between stimulus recognition, stimulus categorization, and stimulus evaluation is important for understanding what cognitive and emotional processing stages involve somatosensory and motor processes.

Making Cognitive Niches Explicit: On the Importance of External Cognitive Representations in Accounting for Cumulative Culture.

Cumulative transmission and innovation are the hallmark properties of the cultural achievements of human beings. Cognitive scientists have traditionally explained these properties in terms of social learning and creativity. The non-social cognitive dimension of cumulative culture, the so-called technical reasoning, has also been accounted for recently. These explanatory perspectives are methodologically individualistic since they frame cumulative and innovative culture in terms of the processing of inner cognitive representations. Here we show that going beyond methodological individualism could facilitate an understanding of why some inventions are disseminated in a stable form and constitute the basis for further modifications. Drawing on three cases of cognitive history of prominent achievements of Antiquity, i.e., Homerian epics, Euclidean geometry, and Roman law, we investigate which properties of cognitive artifacts shaped cognitive niches for modifying original cognitive tasks or developing new ones. These niches both constrained and enabled the cognitive skills of humans to promote cumulative culture and further innovations. At the same time, we claim that "wide cognition," incorporating both intracranial resources and external cognitive representations, constitutes a platform for building explanations of cognitive phenomena developing over a historical time scale.

Blue blood, red blood. How does the color of an emotional scene affect visual attention and pupil size?

The function of color in the processing of emotional scenes is not entirely clear. While there are studies showing that color matters in terms of the capture of covert attention by emotional stimuli, the impact of color on fixation patterns, reflecting overt attention, is unresolved. Studies on the role of color in evoking emotional response have also produced mixed results. Here, we aimed to explore how image color and content influence pupillary response and the engagement of overt visual attention. In the first experiment, we examined the pupillary reaction to neutral images (intact and phase scrambled) in three color variants (natural, abnormal, and grayscale). In the second experiment, we investigated the pupillary changes and fixation pattern in response to images of different valence (neutral, positive, and negative), again in three color versions. The results showed that pupillary responses were influenced by both content and the color of the images. The pupillary response to phase-scrambled images did not differ between the color versions. Intact neutral and positive images, but not negative ones, evoked smaller pupil responses if they were presented in abnormal colors rather than natural ones. The initial capture of attention by emotional content depended on the color version, whereas holding of attention was affected solely by the emotional valence. Thus, color changes the physiological response to images, particularly low-arousing ones, and modulates the initial engagement of attention by image content.

On the locus of the effect of alerting on response conflict: An event-related EEG study with a speed-accuracy tradeoff manipulation.

The present study investigated the locus of the effect of alerting on response conflict, and examined whether this effect may be interpreted as an alerting-triggered imbalance of speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT). Participants performed the flanker task with an alerting tone in half of the trials and SAT manipulation. Behavioral results showed the usual increase of the conflict effect (incongruent-congruent flankers) in the alerting trials. This interaction was not affected by SAT manipulation in response times, although accuracy emphasis abolished alerting effects in error rates. Event-related potential (ERP) results showed that alerting increased the conflict by facilitating the selection and activation of stimulus-response links, reflected in modulations of the P3b component, and by enhancing the activation of incorrect response evoked by incongruent flankers, reflected in an increased initial incorrect activation in the lateralized readiness potential (LRP). Time-frequency analysis showed that the alerting-triggered increase of conflict entailed stronger response of executive mechanisms, reflected in a larger conflict-related midfrontal theta-band power. These EEG effects were not affected by SAT manipulation. In conclusion, alerting affects both the emergence of conflict and conflict control, and this alerting-conflict interaction could not be explained in terms of SAT.

Phase of the menstrual cycle affects engagement of attention with emotional images.

Changes that occur during the menstrual cycle affect various aspects of behavior, cognition, and emotion. Here, we focused on potential differences between early follicular and midluteal phases in the way women process images of behaviorally relevant content categories: children, threat, disgust, erotic scenes, low- and high-calorie food. Using eye-tracking, we examined women's engagement of attention in the key region of each image in a free-viewing condition. Specifically, we tested how quickly attention was attracted to these regions and for how long it was held there. Participants took part in two experimental sessions, one in the early follicular and one in the midluteal phase. The results showed that in the midluteal phase attention was attracted to the key region earlier than in the early follicular phase: the first fixation more often fell within the key region and there were fewer fixations preceding it. While the effect of the phase in terms of the capture of attention did not depend on the image category, the effect regarding the hold of attention was category-specific, concerning the disgust category only. Specifically, in the midluteal phase the duration of the exploration of the key region between reaching it for the first time and first exiting it was shorter, which might be due to heightened sensitivity to disgusting stimuli in this period. Overall, our results indicate the occurrence of changes in attentional processing of emotional scenes related to the menstrual cycle, which seem to differ depending on the aspect of attention deployment: in the midluteal phase the effect of enhancing orienting was general and concerned any important visual information, whereas the effect of the shortened hold of attention appeared to be limited to specific content.

A large-scale survey on finger counting routines, their temporal stability and flexibility in educated adults.

A strong link between bodily activity and number processing has been established in recent years. Although numerous observations indicate that adults use finger counting (FC) in various contexts of everyday life for different purposes, existing knowledge of FC routines and their use is still limited. In particular, it remains unknown how stable the (default) FC habits are over time and how flexible they can be. To investigate these questions, 380 Polish participants completed a questionnaire on their FC routines, the stability of these routines, and the context of FC usage, preceded by the request to count on their fingers from 1 to 10. Next, the test-retest stability of FC habits was examined in 84 participants 2 months following the first session. To the best of our knowledge, such a study design has been adopted for the first time. The results indicate that default FC routines of the majority of participants (75%) are relatively stable over time. At the same time, FC routines can flexibly adapt according to the situation (e.g., when holding an object). As regards prevalence, almost all participants, in line with previous findings on Western individuals, declared starting from the closed palm and extending consecutive fingers. Furthermore, we observed relations between FC preferences and handedness (more left-handers start from the left hand) and that actual finger use is still widespread in healthy adults for a variety of activities (the most prevalent uses of FC are listing elements, presenting arguments and plans, and calendar calculations). In sum, the results show the practical relevance of FC in adulthood, the relative stability of preferences over time along with flexible adaptation to a current situation, as well as an association of FC routines with handedness. Taken together our results suggest that FC is the phenomenon, which is moderated or mediated by multiple embodied factors.

Disentangling brain activity related to the processing of emotional visual information and emotional arousal.

Processing of emotional visual information engages cognitive functions and induces arousal. We aimed to examine the modulatory role of emotional valence on brain activations linked to the processing of visual information and those linked to arousal. Participants were scanned and their pupil size was measured while viewing negative and neutral images. The visual noise was added to the images in various proportions to parametrically manipulate the amount of visual information. Pupil size was used as an index of physiological arousal. We show that arousal induced by the negative images, as compared to the neutral ones, is primarily related to greater amygdala activity while increasing visibility of negative content to enhanced activity in the lateral occipital complex (LOC). We argue that more intense visual processing of negative scenes can occur irrespective of the level of arousal. It may suggest that higher areas of the visual stream are fine-tuned to process emotionally relevant objects. Both arousal and processing of emotional visual information modulated activity within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Overlapping activations within the vmPFC may reflect the integration of these aspects of emotional processing. Additionally, we show that emotionally-evoked pupil dilations are related to activations in the amygdala, vmPFC, and LOC.

Effects of Scene Properties and Emotional Valence on Brain Activations: A Fixation-Related fMRI Study.

Temporal and spatial characteristics of fixations are affected by image properties, including high-level scene characteristics, such as object-background composition, and low-level physical characteristics, such as image clarity. The influence of these factors is modulated by the emotional content of an image. Here, we aimed to establish whether brain correlates of fixations reflect these modulatory effects. To this end, we simultaneously scanned participants and measured their eye movements, while presenting negative and neutral images in various image clarity conditions, with controlled object-background composition. The fMRI data were analyzed using a novel fixation-based event-related (FIBER) method, which allows the tracking of brain activity linked to individual fixations. The results revealed that fixating an emotional object was linked to greater deactivation in the right lingual gyrus than fixating the background of an emotional image, while no difference between object and background was found for neutral images. We suggest that deactivation in the lingual gyrus might be linked to inhibition of saccade execution. This was supported by fixation duration results, which showed that in the negative condition, fixations falling on the object were longer than those falling on the background. Furthermore, increase in the image clarity was correlated with fixation-related activity within the lateral occipital complex, the structure linked to object recognition. This correlation was significantly stronger for negative images, presumably due to greater deployment of attention towards emotional objects. Our eye-tracking results are in line with these observations, showing that the chance of fixating an object rose faster for negative images over neutral ones as the level of noise decreased. Overall, our study demonstrated that emotional value of an image changes the way that low and high-level scene properties affect the characteristics of fixations. The fixation-related brain activity is affected by the low-level scene properties and this impact differs between negative and neutral images. The high-level scene properties also affect brain correlates of fixations, but only in the case of the negative images.