Attentional disengagement is modulated by the offset of unpleasant pictures: a saccadic reaction time study

•Attentional disengagement from affective pictures using saccadic reaction times.•Offset of unpleasant pictures modulates saccade latencies.•Affective content modulates attentional disengagement.•Saccadic reaction times are modulated by affective pictures.•Saccade latencies are influenced by the affective content of pictures.

We studied the influence of passively viewing a picture on saccade latencies to peripheral targets. Thirty-two volunteers were instructed to look at a central picture, wait for the onset of a peripheral target, and execute a saccade toward it as quickly as possible — saccadic reaction time (SRT). The central picture (neutral or unpleasant) could be turned off simultaneously with target onset (the no-gap condition) or 200 ms prior to target onset (the gap-200 condition). We found that saccade latencies were influenced by emotional valence and condition. In the no-gap condition, SRTs were longer after viewing unpleasant pictures. In the gap-200 condition, the pattern was reversed, and unpleasant pictures induced shorter SRTs in relation to neutral pictures. Furthermore, the influence of unpleasant pictures gradually decreased when images were re-exposed to the participants — affective habituation. The results are discussed in terms of attentional avoidance and disengagement from unpleasant emotional pictures.