Independence Threat or Interdependence Threat? The Focusing Effect on Social or Physical Threat Modulates Brain Activity

TL;DR

This study explores how the brain processes social and physical threats when attention is focused on one type, revealing differences in neural responses.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel attention-guided paradigm to compare brain activity during social and physical threat processing.

Findings

Social threats show stronger neural processing advantages, as indicated by higher N170 and EPN amplitudes.

Physical threat focus is influenced by social threat presence, as shown by increased N190 amplitudes.

Attention modulates how social and physical threats are processed in the brain.

Abstract

Objective: The neural basis of threat perception has mostly been examined separately for social or physical threats. However, most of the threats encountered in everyday life are complex. The features of interactions between social and physiological threats under different attentional conditions are unclear. Method: The present study explores this issue using an attention-guided paradigm based on ERP techniques. The screen displays social threats (face threats) and physical threats (action threats), instructing participants to concentrate on only one type of threat, thereby exploring brain activation characteristics. Results: It was found that action threats did not affect the processing of face threats in the face-attention condition, and electrophysiological evidence from the brain suggests a comparable situation to that when processing face threats alone, with higher amplitudes of the N170 and EPN (Early Posterior Negativity) components of anger than neutral emotions. However, when focusing on the action-attention condition, the brain was affected by face threats, as evidenced by a greater N190 elicited by stimuli containing threatening emotions, regardless of whether the action was threatening or not. This trend was also reflected in EPN. Conclusions: The current study reveals important similarities and differences between physical and social threats, suggesting that the brain has a greater processing advantage for social threats.

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