Upper-lower visual field asymmetries in oculomotor inhibition of emotional distractors

The present study investigated oculomotor inhibition of emotional faces as indicated by saccade curvatures. In Experiment 1, participants saccaded towards a target that appeared above or below fixation while single facial distractors depicting neutral, happy, and angry expressions appeared in one of the four quadrants of the screen. In Experiment 2, participants selected between two objects on the screen by saccading towards a predefined target, while again single facial emotional distractors were presented in one of the four screen quadrants. In both experiments, saccade trajectories curved most strongly away from angry distractors indicating enhanced attentional capture by angry faces. This effect occurred with upright faces but not with inverted faces. The emotion effect was restricted to targets at the lower vertical meridian. The lower visual field has been argued to be specialized for action in peripersonal space and near vision. The modulation by target location might be attributed to activation of near space representation by saccades toward a lower target, inducing increased vigilance for stimuli of action relevance to protect the peripersonal space from interference.

► We investigated the oculomotor inhibition of facial emotional distractors. ► Saccade trajectories curved more strongly away from angry than happy distractors. ► This effect was observed with upright faces but not with inverted faces. ► It was observed with saccades towards targets at the lower vertical meridian.