Subliminal emotional faces do not capture attention under high attentional load in a randomized trial presentation

Abstract

In spatial cueing paradigms, emotional stimuli generally orient attention more efficiently, leading to modulations of behavioural and neuronal responses according to stimulus valence. In a previous study, we showed that when emotional stimuli are not consciously perceived, they cannot orient attention and that emotion is not processed when attentional load is high. In the present studies, we were able to confirm these behavioural findings, even when stimulus duration is randomized, which was not the case in the original study. These results confirm the original findings and show that even in a randomized sequence, irrelevant emotional expressions displayed under the threshold of awareness do not capture attention when the task involves high attentional load.