The first minute of the fear response – What does modern cognitive neuroscience say about the processing of visual threats?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17627/ALKPSZICH.2025.2.9Keywords:
threatening stimuli, visual attention, attentional biases, brain network, evoked potentialAbstract
Background and Aims: Over the past decade, research into the processing of visual threat stimuli has undergone a spectacular renewal in both methodology and theory. The threat-related attentional bias framework, which grew out of behavioural paradigms and has prevailed for more than half a century, has been supplemented by studies combining the latest behavioural observations with neurological measurements. Classically described attentional biases are much more differentiated in terms of time and context, and can be understood as the dynamic interaction between attentional salience and executive networks. This article summarises the key points of the classical theory and presents the challenges of reproducibility and methodology. It also reviews the refined model outlined based on international and our own laboratory results. This model discusses the roles of early stimulus-driven orientation and inhibitory mechanisms, as well as context-dependent avoidance, within a common framework.