Ricerc@Sapienza

A large body of research has shown that spatial information is processed more accurately in the left than in the right visual field. In healthy subjects, this spatial processing asymmetry has been named ¿pseudoneglect,¿ and it entails a slight but systematic leftward bias across various experimental tasks. A number of studies have revealed that this basic spatial phenomenon is modulated by emotional processing. However, these studies have produced overall mixed results, and the presence and direction of the effect are still unclear.
Here, we will examine the interaction between emotion processing and pseudoneglect using a perceptual line bisection task. Forty participants will be recruited for this project. First, participants will be asked to perform a perceptual bisection line in order to assess each individual¿s attention bias baseline. Second, participants will perform a perceptual bisection line task. Happy, sad, angry, or scrambles faces will be presented either at the ends of the line or before the line appears.
The implication of this project will be discussed in the context of some theoretical frameworks, such as the right-hemisphere hypothesis and the valence-specific hypothesis. The results of this work will potentially contribute to understanding the interplay between emotional states and attention.