STARTLE REFLEX MODIFICATION - EFFECTS OF ATTENTION VARY WITH EMOTIONAL VALENCE

This report examines the concurrent effects of manipulating attentional focus and emotional context on human blink reflex modulation. Eyeblink reflexes were elicited by air puffs or noise bursts from two groups of subjects while the focus of attention was manipulated. Emotional context was varied by changing the description of the air-puff stimulus between groups; all other protocol parameters were identical. Blink amplitude varied directly with the allocation of attention resources across sensory modalities in the neutral affective context. In the negative context, a general reflex facilitation was augmented when attention was focused on the aversive stimulus. These results indicate that the emotional context can affect the expression of attentional mechanisms involved in modulation of the eyeblink reflex.