Aversive Learning Reduces Suppression Time Of Neutral Gabor Patch During Binocular Rivalry

Gaining information of value within a changing environment, which allow us torespond fast and properly, is a crucial aspect of human cognitive ability. Visual imagesthat convey threatening information, for example aversive pictures or faces withfearful expressions, are highly relevant for human beings’ living. A large number ofresearches have demonstrated optimized processing of affectively significant visualstimuli, which not only have dominance in visual awareness but also be processedfaster than neutral ones. This superiority of processing is also found in the absence ofconsciousness. But whether learned affective significance of a visual item could leadto enhanced visual processing in the absence of consciousness remains unclear.To investigate this, in the present study, subjects performed a CFS task involvingsimple grating stimuli called Gabor patch. During an initial aversive learning phase,certain Gabor patch acquired additional affective salience via pairing with alarmsound (CS+Gabor patch), whereas others were never paired with alarm sound (CS-Gabor patch).We found that the CS+Gabor patch would emerge from suppression intoawareness more quickly than CS-ones, which provided further evidence for theoptimized processing of affectively significant visual stimuli in the absence ofconsciousness.