Neuroimaging of the Emotional Attentional Blink
McHugo, Maureen Kelly
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2014-04-09
Abstract
The emotional attentional blink (EAB), also known as emotion-induced blindness, refers to a phenomenon in which the brief appearance of a task-irrelevant, emotionally arousing image captures attention to such an extent that individuals cannot detect target stimuli for several hundred ms after the emotional stimulus. This dissertation shows that the EAB depends upon activation of a neural circuit involving the amygdala, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, middle frontal gyri and left inferior parietal lobule. The EAB may involve interactions with regions in the default mode and frontoparietal control networks. The importance of understanding the EAB is highlighted by recent evidence indicating that EAB tasks can detect altered sensitivity to disorder relevant stimuli in psychiatric conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder.