Subliminal Impending Collision Increases Perceived Object Size and Enhances Pupillary Light Reflex
Fast detection of ambient danger is crucial for the survival of biological entities. Previous studies have shown that threatening information can bias human visual perception and enhance physiological reactions. It remains to be delineated whether the modulation of threat on human perceptual and phy...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2016-12-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01897/full |
| _version_ | 1818480588880871424 |
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| author | Lihong Chen Lihong Chen Xiangyong Yuan Qian Xu Qian Xu Ying Wang Yi Jiang Yi Jiang |
| author_facet | Lihong Chen Lihong Chen Xiangyong Yuan Qian Xu Qian Xu Ying Wang Yi Jiang Yi Jiang |
| author_sort | Lihong Chen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Fast detection of ambient danger is crucial for the survival of biological entities. Previous studies have shown that threatening information can bias human visual perception and enhance physiological reactions. It remains to be delineated whether the modulation of threat on human perceptual and physiological responses can take place below awareness. To probe this issue, we adopted visual looming stimuli and created two levels of threat by varying their motion trajectories to the observers, such that the stimuli could move in a path that either collided with the observers’ heads or just nearly missed. We found that when the observers could not explicitly discriminate any difference between the collision and the near-miss stimuli, the visual stimuli on the collision course appeared larger and evoked greater pupil constrictions than those on the near-miss course. Furthermore, the magnitude of size overestimation was comparable to when the impending collision was consciously perceived. Our findings suggest that threatening information can bias human visual perception and strengthen pupil constrictions independent of conscious representation of the threat, and imply the existence of the subcortical visual pathway dedicated to automatically processing threat-related signals in humans. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T11:25:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-21f6b090721e4f3591a26a07d860f4f1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T11:25:28Z |
| publishDate | 2016-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-21f6b090721e4f3591a26a07d860f4f12022-12-22T01:50:45ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782016-12-01710.3389/fpsyg.2016.01897214395Subliminal Impending Collision Increases Perceived Object Size and Enhances Pupillary Light ReflexLihong Chen0Lihong Chen1Xiangyong Yuan2Qian Xu3Qian Xu4Ying Wang5Yi Jiang6Yi Jiang7State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of SciencesUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of SciencesUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of SciencesUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of SciencesFast detection of ambient danger is crucial for the survival of biological entities. Previous studies have shown that threatening information can bias human visual perception and enhance physiological reactions. It remains to be delineated whether the modulation of threat on human perceptual and physiological responses can take place below awareness. To probe this issue, we adopted visual looming stimuli and created two levels of threat by varying their motion trajectories to the observers, such that the stimuli could move in a path that either collided with the observers’ heads or just nearly missed. We found that when the observers could not explicitly discriminate any difference between the collision and the near-miss stimuli, the visual stimuli on the collision course appeared larger and evoked greater pupil constrictions than those on the near-miss course. Furthermore, the magnitude of size overestimation was comparable to when the impending collision was consciously perceived. Our findings suggest that threatening information can bias human visual perception and strengthen pupil constrictions independent of conscious representation of the threat, and imply the existence of the subcortical visual pathway dedicated to automatically processing threat-related signals in humans.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01897/fullAwarenessSize Perceptionthreatloomingpupillary light reflex |
| spellingShingle | Lihong Chen Lihong Chen Xiangyong Yuan Qian Xu Qian Xu Ying Wang Yi Jiang Yi Jiang Subliminal Impending Collision Increases Perceived Object Size and Enhances Pupillary Light Reflex Frontiers in Psychology Awareness Size Perception threat looming pupillary light reflex |
| title | Subliminal Impending Collision Increases Perceived Object Size and Enhances Pupillary Light Reflex |
| title_full | Subliminal Impending Collision Increases Perceived Object Size and Enhances Pupillary Light Reflex |
| title_fullStr | Subliminal Impending Collision Increases Perceived Object Size and Enhances Pupillary Light Reflex |
| title_full_unstemmed | Subliminal Impending Collision Increases Perceived Object Size and Enhances Pupillary Light Reflex |
| title_short | Subliminal Impending Collision Increases Perceived Object Size and Enhances Pupillary Light Reflex |
| title_sort | subliminal impending collision increases perceived object size and enhances pupillary light reflex |
| topic | Awareness Size Perception threat looming pupillary light reflex |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01897/full |
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