Observing a fearful facial expression elicits an automatic orienting of attention. Past research focusing on fear conditioning has used an unconditioned stimulus that the participant directly experiences (e.g. shock). Other research has focused on observational fear learning where the participant watches another individual receive the stimulus. The aim of this study was to condition a colored square with a fearful face in the dot-probe task. Orienting toward and disengagement from fearful faces was also examined using the dot-probe task. In addition, hemodynamic responses in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were measured using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). It was hypothesized that after pairing a neutral stimulus (a colored square) with a fearful face, attentional bias toward the fearful face would transfer to the neutral stimulus. It was further hypothesized that the medial PFC (mPFC) would be more active during learning and extinction and that the mPFC would be involved with early and late phases of attention processing. The results suggest that attentional bias toward fearful faces did not transfer to a colored square. However, this study did find an orientating of attention toward fearful faces and a delayed disengagement of attention from fearful faces. Analysis of the NIRS data was purely exploratory and indicated that the mPFC was involved in orienting attention toward the fearful face while the lateral PFC was involved in delayed disengagement of attention.
","abstract_html":"<p>Observing a fearful facial expression elicits an automatic orienting of attention. Past research focusing on fear conditioning has used an unconditioned stimulus that the participant directly experiences (e.g. shock). Other research has focused on observational fear learning where the participant watches another individual receive the stimulus. The aim of this study was to condition a colored square with a fearful face in the dot-probe task. Orienting toward and disengagement from fearful faces was also examined using the dot-probe task. In addition, hemodynamic responses in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were measured using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). It was hypothesized that after pairing a neutral stimulus (a colored square) with a fearful face, attentional bias toward the fearful face would transfer to the neutral stimulus. It was further hypothesized that the medial PFC (mPFC) would be more active during learning and extinction and that the mPFC would be involved with early and late phases of attention processing. The results suggest that attentional bias toward fearful faces did not transfer to a colored square. However, this study did find an orientating of attention toward fearful faces and a delayed disengagement of attention from fearful faces. Analysis of the NIRS data was purely exploratory and indicated that the mPFC was involved in orienting attention toward the fearful face while the lateral PFC was involved in delayed disengagement of attention.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Torrence, Robert D"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Psychological Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Joshua Carlson"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2015-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:23:34Z","subjects":["Prefrontal cortex","dot-probe task","NIRS","fear conditioning","fearful faces","Cognitive Psychology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/57","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Joshua Carlson"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Torrence, Robert D"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-07-09T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychological Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Prefrontal cortex","dot-probe task","NIRS","fear conditioning","fearful faces","Cognitive Psychology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/57"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Observing a fearful facial expression elicits an automatic orienting of attention. Past research focusing on fear conditioning has used an unconditioned stimulus that the participant directly experiences (e.g. shock). Other research has focused on observational fear learning where the participant watches another individual receive the stimulus. The aim of this study was to condition a colored square with a fearful face in the dot-probe task. Orienting toward and disengagement from fearful faces was also examined using the dot-probe task. In addition, hemodynamic responses in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were measured using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). It was hypothesized that after pairing a neutral stimulus (a colored square) with a fearful face, attentional bias toward the fearful face would transfer to the neutral stimulus. It was further hypothesized that the medial PFC (mPFC) would be more active during learning and extinction and that the mPFC would be involved with early and late phases of attention processing. The results suggest that attentional bias toward fearful faces did not transfer to a colored square. However, this study did find an orientating of attention toward fearful faces and a delayed disengagement of attention from fearful faces. Analysis of the NIRS data was purely exploratory and indicated that the mPFC was involved in orienting attention toward the fearful face while the lateral PFC was involved in delayed disengagement of attention.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["PREFRONTAL CORTEX ACTIVITY DURING ATTENTIONAL BIAS CONDITIONING WITH FEARFUL FACES: A NEAR-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY ANALYSIS"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Joshua Carlson"],"dc:creator":["Torrence, Robert D"],"dc:date.available":["2015-07-09T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Observing a fearful facial expression elicits an automatic orienting of attention. Past research focusing on fear conditioning has used an unconditioned stimulus that the participant directly experiences (e.g. shock). Other research has focused on observational fear learning where the participant watches another individual receive the stimulus. The aim of this study was to condition a colored square with a fearful face in the dot-probe task. Orienting toward and disengagement from fearful faces was also examined using the dot-probe task. In addition, hemodynamic responses in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were measured using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). It was hypothesized that after pairing a neutral stimulus (a colored square) with a fearful face, attentional bias toward the fearful face would transfer to the neutral stimulus. It was further hypothesized that the medial PFC (mPFC) would be more active during learning and extinction and that the mPFC would be involved with early and late phases of attention processing. The results suggest that attentional bias toward fearful faces did not transfer to a colored square. However, this study did find an orientating of attention toward fearful faces and a delayed disengagement of attention from fearful faces. Analysis of the NIRS data was purely exploratory and indicated that the mPFC was involved in orienting attention toward the fearful face while the lateral PFC was involved in delayed disengagement of attention.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/57"],"dc:subject":["Prefrontal cortex","dot-probe task","NIRS","fear conditioning","fearful faces","Cognitive Psychology"],"dc:title":["PREFRONTAL CORTEX ACTIVITY DURING ATTENTIONAL BIAS CONDITIONING WITH FEARFUL FACES: A NEAR-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY ANALYSIS"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychological Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:23:34Z"}