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Fear and anxiety modulate mental rotation

a b c
Grégoire Borst , Graeme Standing & Stephen M. Kosslyn
a
LaPsyDÉ , CNRS Unit 3521, University Paris Descartes and Caen , Sorbonne Paris
Cite, Paris , France
b
Department of Psychology , University of Bath , Bath , UK
c
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and Department of
Psychology , Stanford University , Stanford , USA
Published online: 19 Jun 2012.

To cite this article: Grégoire Borst , Graeme Standing & Stephen M. Kosslyn (2012) Fear and anxiety modulate mental
rotation, Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 24:6, 665-671, DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2012.679924

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 JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, 2012, 24 (6), 665671

Fear and anxiety modulate mental rotation

Grégoire Borst1, Graeme Standing2, and Stephen M. Kosslyn3

1
LaPsyDÉ, CNRS Unit 3521, University Paris Descartes and Caen, Sorbonne Paris Cite,
Paris, France
2
Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Bath, UK
3
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and Department of Psychology,
Stanford University, Stanford, USA
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We used an emotional priming paradigm to investigate whether fear and anxiety modulate mental
rotation of abstract three-dimensional objects (i.e., Shepard-Metzler figures). On each trial, participants
viewed pairs of objects and decided whether the objects had the identical shape by mentally rotating the
one on the right into congruence with the one on the left. The participants viewed a picture of a face*
fearful or neutral*briefly before the pairs of objects appeared. Participants with high state anxiety, and
not those with low state anxiety, rotated the objects more quickly after they saw fearful faces than after
they saw neutral faces. This result not only documents that fear can improve mental rotation but also
shows that this effect is modulated by the emotional arousal of the participants.

Keywords: Emotion; Individual differences; Mental rotation; Visual mental imagery.

Specialised neural systems process stimuli with Pessoa, McKenna, Gutierrez, & Ungerleider, 2002).
emotional significance. For instance, the amygda- Moreover, patients with amygdala lesions do not
la plays a key role when a stimulus evokes fear exhibit the typical enhanced responses to fearful
(e.g., Phelps, 2006). The amygdala responds to faces (as compared to neutral faces) in visual areas
fearful faces even when the participant is not (e.g., Vuilleumier, Richardson, Armony, Driver, &
aware of having seen them (e.g., Morris, Öhman, Dolan, 2004), which is as expected if the amygdala
& Dolan, 1998) or they are unattended (e.g., modulates visual processing (Phelps, 2006).
Vuilleumier, Armony, Driver, & Dolan, 2001). Recently, researchers have reported behaviour-
Emotional stimuli such as fearful faces not only al consequences of the emotional modulation of
activate the amygdala but also enhance activity early visual processing. For example, when fearful
in various areas involved in visual perception, faces are used as a prime they produce greater
including the fusiform face area (Sabatinelly, contrast sensitivity than do neutral faces (Phelps,
Bradley, Fitzsimmons, & Lang, 2005), the posterior Ling, & Carasco, 2006), and fearful faces enhance
occipital lobes (Kosslyn et al., 1996), and parietal orientation sensitivity for low-spatial-frequency
areas (presumably via connections with subcortical Gabor patches (Bocanegra & Zeelenberg, 2009)
structures such as the pulvinar and the superior and for processing of low-spatial frequency visual
colliculus; see Tamietto & de Gelder, 2010, for a information in visual mental images (Borst &
review). Indeed, the level of activation of the Kosslyn, 2010).
amygdala is correlated with how vigorously Such findings suggest that emotional state
visual areas respond to visual stimuli (e.g., modulates visual processing in the ventral visual

Correspondence should be addressed to Grégoire Borst, Laboratory for the Psychology of Child Development and Education,
CNRS Unit 3521, Paris-Descartes University, 46 rue Saint-Jacques, 75005 Paris, France. E-mail: [email protected]

# 2012 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
http://www.psypress.com/ecp http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2012.679924
 666 BORST, STANDING, KOSSLYN

stream, but little is known of the effect of emotion people who have higher anxiety (trait or state)
on visuospatial processing in the dorsal visual have enhanced amygdala reactivity to threat (e.g.,
stream. The present study addresses this issue. Bishop, Duncan, & Lawrence, 2004), which led us
Based on the observations that: (1) the amygdala to predict a stronger effect of the fearful prime on
modulates activity in subcortical structures that in the speed of mental rotation for participants with
turn modulates activity in the parietal lobes, and higher scores on the state anxiety scale of the
(2) mental rotation elicits activation of the poster- State-Trait Anxiety Scale (STAI; Spielberger,
ior parietal lobes (e.g., Zacks, 2008), we reasoned Goruch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983) than
that a fearful face should prime performance for participants with lower scores.
in a classical mental rotation task (Shepard & Finally, given that we only included fearful and
Metzler, 1971). In Shepard and Metzler’s (1971) neutral faces as primes, we note that the effect of
paradigm, a pair of abstract three-dimensional the fearful primes on the speed of rotation could
objects with several arms (each constructed of merely reflect general emotional arousal that is
small cubes) is presented, and participants decide evoked by aversive stimuli. If so, then we would
whether the two objects have the same shape expect effects for stimuli at 0 degrees of orienta-
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regardless of any difference in orientation. The tion, which do not require rotation per se.
key finding is a linear increase in response times
(RTs) with increasing angular disparity between
the two objects. This linear increase of RTs with
angular disparity between objects suggests that METHOD
participants mentally rotate one of the objects
into congruence with the other object. Critically, Participants
the efficiency of the mental rotation process per
se is reflected by the rate of mental rotation*the We recruited 32 volunteers (29 right-handed and
steepness of the slopes of the best-fitting line* three left-handed) with normal or corrected-
whereas general visual processing (i.e., encoding to-normal vision (24 females, eight males, with
and visual comparison of the objects) is reflected an average age of 21.1 years). All participants
by the RTs when the two objects are presented in provided written consent and were tested in
the same orientation. In our study, on each trial accordance with national and international norms
we first presented a fearful face or a neutral face, governing the use of human research participants.
which was then followed by a pair of three-
dimensional objects in either the same orientation
or with one of three levels of angular disparity Materials
(50, 100, and 150 degrees). If the emotional state
Mental rotation task. We designed eight multi-
of the participants*evoked by the presentation
armed, angular three-dimensional objects and
of the priming stimulus*modulates mental rota-
eight mirror reflections of these objects through
tion efficiency, then we expect faster mental
the y-axis. All objects were created by connecting
rotation following a fearful face than following a
711 small cubes. Each stimulus contained a pair
neutral face. In addition, if emotion selectively
affects mental rotation per se, then we expect no of pictures of the same object, with each object
difference in RTs for objects presented at the subtending 9.989.78 along the horizontal meri-
same orientation (cf. Bocanegra & Zeelenberg, dian, with an object located 5.88 to either side of a
2009). light grey central fixation point (0.480.48) on a
In our view, fear is a basic emotion and as such uniform black background. The two objects were
has a quick, involuntary onset, and a brief either the same or the object on the left was a
duration (Eckman, 1992), whereas anxiety is a mirror reflection of the object on the right. The
cognitive association between basic emotions object on the right could be either in the same
(such as fear) to events and responses (Izard, orientation as the one on the left or rotated by
1992). Although anxiety and fear are both adap- 508, 1008, or 1508 around the y-axis. We created an
tive emotional responses to threat, anxiety varies equal number of trials in which the objects were
widely between individuals and situations. Criti- in the same orientation or rotated to each extent,
cally, the emotional response to the presentation and half the objects in pairs at each relative
of a fearful stimuli increases with greater anxiety. orientation had the identical shape and half were
And in fact, several studies have shown that mirror-images.
 FEAR, ANXIETY, AND MENTAL ROTATION 667

Emotional primes. We selected two versions of then a face was presented (75 ms), appearing in
each of 10 pictures of faces (five males and five the centre of the screen; 50 ms after the face had
females, of different ethnicities) from the been removed, one of the pairs of mental rotation
NimStim set of facial expressions (Tottenham stimuli appeared for 7 s or until the participant’s
et al., 2009), converted to eight-bit greyscale; response (see Figure 1). Participants decided
one version of each picture displayed a neutral whether the two objects had the same shape
expression and one version displayed a fearful regardless of their orientation by pressing one of
expression. Each of the 20 pictures (9.587.38) the two response buttons, which stopped a clock
was individually displayed in the centre of the that started when the stimulus appeared. We
screen on a uniform black background. explicitly instructed participants to mentally ro-
Stimuli were presented on a 20-inch iMac G5 tate the object presented on the right to the
with a resolution of 16801050 pixels (refresh orientation of the object presented on the left in
rate of 75 Hz). order to compare their shapes. We asked partici-
pants to perform this task as quickly and accu-
STAI. The STAI (Spielberger et al., 1983) is a rately as possible.
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self-evaluation questionnaire. Participants rate Participants first performed one block of eight
each of 40 statements on a 4-point Likert practice trials with feedback provided on their
scale to describe how they feel at the moment responses. The two Shepard-Metzler figures and
(State-Anxiety Scale) and how they generally feel the two faces presented during practice trials were
(Trait-Anxiety Scale). not used in the experimental trials. Participants
then performed two blocks of 128 experimental
trials. In each block, each of the eight pairs of
Procedure Shepard-Metzler figures was presented four times
with each of the four possible angular disparities
Participants were tested individually, sitting ap- (08, 508, 1008, and 1508). For each orientation, on
proximately 60 cm from a computer screen. Each two trials the two objects in the pair were
trial began with a fixation point (500 ms), and identical and on two trials the object on the right

Figure 1. Procedure used in the mental rotation task.

 668 BORST, STANDING, KOSSLYN

was a mirror image of the object on the left. For all RTs, error rates (ERs), slopes of the best-
each object in a given orientation, one of the fitting lines in the neutral and fearful conditions,
identical and mirror pairs of objects followed a and the STAI scores, ps.35. Critically, we note
neutral face and one followed a fearful face. that the lack of gender differences on the slopes*
We created two lists of 128 trials: Pairs of which is the variable of interest here*is consis-
objects in List 1 primed by neutral faces were tent with previous results collected on a sample
primed by fearful faces in List 2 and vice versa. with equal numbers of men and women in a study
The order in which the two lists were presented that used the exact same materials (Borst, Kievit,
was counterbalanced over participants. Finally, to Thompson, & Kosslyn, 2011). Thus, we pooled the
prevent attenuation of the emotional response, data over this variable in the subsequent analyses.
we created miniblocks of 16 trials: Each of the 16 As a first step, we analysed the RTs in a 2
neutral and fearful faces used in the test trials (group: high anxiety vs. low anxiety) 2 (face
appeared once before appearing twice. Trials prime: fearful vs. neutral) 4 (angular disparity:
were randomised within each block, except that 08 vs. 508 vs. 1008 vs. 1508) mixed design analysis
no more than four trials with either the same of variance (ANOVA). Then, RTs were analysed
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correct answer, the same angular disparity be- for each group for each type of prime separately,
tween the objects, the same object, or the same in order to determine whether RTs increased
emotion of the faces could occur in a row. linearly with increasing angular disparity, which
At the end of the experiment, participants would demonstrate that participants mentally
completed the STAI. rotated the objects. Then, we compared the slopes
of the best-fitting lines, the RTs for the 0 degree
orientation, and the error rates in both groups for
RESULTS trials preceded by neutral faces and for trials
preceded by fearful faces.
We restricted the analysis of the RTs to correct A three-way mixed design ANOVA of the RTs
trials on which both objects in a pair were revealed that the effect of angular disparity varied
identical. By convention, RTs on trials in which for the two types of faces for the high anxiety
the shape of the two objects differed are not group, F(3, 45) 3.96, p B.015, g2p .21, but not
analysed in mental rotation studies because it is for the low anxiety group, F(3, 45) B 1. The three-
impossible to define strictly the angle that must way interaction was significant, F(3, 90) 2.81,
be rotated before participants notice that the two p B.05, g2p .07. Thus, the effect of emotion on
objects have different shapes. Outliers*defined the effect of angular disparity on the RTs varied
as RTs greater than 2 SD from the mean for a for different levels of anxiety.
given angle*occurred on 1.2% of the trials. After One-way repeated-measures ANOVAs re-
removing outliers, for each participant, we com- vealed that RTs varied for the different angular
puted the average RT for each angle of rotation disparities in both groups following both types of
following each type of expression of the faces emotional primes: for the high anxiety group, F(3,
(fearful vs. neutral). 45) 69.85, pB.0001, g2p .82 following fearful
To create two groups of participants (high vs. faces, and F(3, 45)  47.37, p B.0001, g2p .76
low anxiety state), we used a median split of the following neutral faces; and for the low anxiety
scores on the state anxiety scale of the STAI. The group, F(3, 45) 82.45, p B.0001, g2p .85 follow-
high anxiety group (M 49.4, SD 7.92) had ing fearful faces, and F(3, 45) 29.49, pB.0001,
higher score on the state anxiety scale of the g2p .66 following neutral faces. RTs increased
STAI than the low anxiety group (M 31.8, linearly with increasing angular disparity for the
SD 6.31), t(14) 5.47, pB.0001, d1.96. The high anxiety group, F(1, 15) 133.38, pB.0001,
two groups had comparable scores on the trait g2p .89 following fearful faces, and F(1, 15) 
anxiety scale, respectively M 41.3 (SD 8.33) 67.25, pB.0001, g2p .82 following neutral faces,
for the high anxiety group and M 36.3 and for the low anxiety group, F(1, 15)  200.16,
(SD 7.93) for the low anxiety group, t(14)  p B.0001, g2p .93 following fearful faces, and
1.5, p.14. Critically, none of the participants F(1, 15)  49.16, p B.0001, g2p .77 following
met the clinical criterion for anxiety based on the neutral faces.
score of the trait scale of the STAI. Following this, we computed the best-fitting
Preliminary analyses revealed no effect of linear functions calculated by the method of least
gender on any of the dependent variables*over- squares for both groups and following both types
 FEAR, ANXIETY, AND MENTAL ROTATION 669

TABLE 1
Mean RTs for different angular disparities, slopes, and error rates in the HA and LA groups following neutral and fearful face primes

Angular disparity

0 deg 50 deg 100 deg 150 deg Slopes Error rates

High anxiety group

Neutral 1298 (399) 1865 (783) 2372 (734) 2751 (778) 8.86 (4.22) 10.2 (0.07)
Fearful 1285 (395) 1995 (766) 2369 (720) 2506 (819) 5.11 (3.53) 10.8 (0.07)

Low anxiety group

Neutral 1446 (415) 2028 (563) 2564 (646) 2834 (675) 8.05 (4.76) 9.6 (0.06)
Fearful 1325 (470) 1971 (656) 2464 (550) 2717 (512) 7.46 (3.97) 11 (0.07)

of faces. In the two groups and the two types of 1.24, p .28 for RTs for the 0 deg trials, and F B1
faces, RTs and angular disparity were highly for the ERs, respectively. If the results were a
correlated (with Bravais-Pearson rs ranging result of general arousal, we would have expected
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from .96 to .99, p B.05). Taken together, the improvement even on these trials.
results suggest that participants mentally rotated
one of the objects in each pair into congruence
with the other object to determine whether the DISCUSSION
two were identical or mirror-reversed (Table 1).
Crucially, the effect of the type of cues on the The results clearly demonstrate that participants
speed of mental rotation*i.e., the slope of the in the high state anxiety group mentally rotated
best-fitting line*varied for the different groups, complex three dimensional objects faster after
F(1, 30)  6.04, p B.025, g2p .21. In fact, planned seeing a fearful face than after seeing a neutral
comparisons demonstrated that participants in face. Critically, emotion facilitated mental rota-
the high anxiety group mentally rotated faster tion per se, not other aspects of visual processing
after they saw a fearful face (M 5.11 ms/degree, of the stimuli (such as involved the visual
SD 3.53) than after they saw a neutral face comparison of the two objects)*as revealed by
(M 8.86 ms/degree, SD 4.22), t(15) 3.68, the lack of difference in RTs when the two objects
p B.0025, d 0.96. In contrast, participants in were presented in the same orientation. In addi-
the low anxiety group mentally rotated at com- tion, the effect of fearful faces on the speed of
parable speeds after they saw a fearful face rotation did not reflect a speedaccuracy tradeoff,
(M 7.46 ms/degree, SD 3.97) or neutral face given that no difference was found on the number
(M 8.05 ms/degree, SD 4.76), t B1. Finally, of errors between trials preceded by fearful faces
we are confident that this facilitation effect of versus those preceded by neutral faces. Finally, we
mental rotation is not a mere byproduct of the are confident that the increase in the speed of
median split given that the speed of rotation was rotation was a consequence of the emotional
faster after the presentation of fearful faces valence of the face because this effect was
(M 6.29 ms/degree, SD 3.89) than neutral restricted to participants who reported a high
faces (M 8.46 ms/degree, SD 4.44), t(31)  anxiety state, and thus were more likely to
3.13, pB.005, d0.52 when we examined the respond strongly to the expression of the face.
entire sample (n 32). However, the fact that fearful faces do prime
In order to determine whether fear selectively mental rotation per se (as reflected in the slope of
improves the speed of mental rotation per se, we the function relating response time to angular
analysed the RTs for the 0 degree trials and the disparity) does not rule out the possibility that
error rates in two separate 2 (group: high anxiety negative emotions in general can prime this
vs. low anxiety) 2 (face prime: fearful vs. neu- process*not fear per se. Nevertheless, although
tral) ANOVAs. The expression of the faces had the present data cannot allow us to distinguish
no effect on RTs on the trials in which no mental between these two alternatives, we can rule out a
rotation was required, F(1, 30) 1.92, p.18, or simple effect of emotional arousal: If emotional
on the ERs, F(1, 30) 2.19, p.15. Moreover, arousal were the root of the effect, emotional
we did not find an interaction between the type priming should have affected performance on the
of prime and the group of participants, F(1, 30)  0 degree stimuli, but it did not.
 670 BORST, STANDING, KOSSLYN

Gender differences are well documented on in the present study offer the first evidence that
mental rotation efficiency (e.g., see, for reviews, emotion can specifically facilitate the process of
Linn & Petersen, 1985; Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, mentally rotating three dimensional objects.
1995) although the generality of this effect has We suspect that the facilitation effect reported
been recently questioned (see, e.g., Neubauer, in the present study stems from the activation of
Bergner, & Schatz, 2010; Parsons et al., 2004). the amygdala*and possibly other subcortical
Nevertheless, one could argue given the number structures such as the superior colliculus and the
of women (24) relative to men (eight) in our pulvinar in which activity covaries with the
sample that the facilitation effect of emotion on activity of the amygdala in response to noncon-
the speed of mental rotation could be generalised scious perception of fearful facial expressions (see
to women but not to men. However, we found no Tamietto & de Gelder, 2010)*and such activity
effect of gender on participants’ overall response in turn enhances activity in the parietal lobes,
times, accuracy and mental rotation speed (re- which are the critical areas activated when one
flected by the slopes of the best-fitting line). The mentally rotates objects (e.g., Zacks, 2008). This
lack of gender difference is consistent with results inference is consistent with the fact that the effect
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reported in a previous study in which the same of emotion on mental rotation was restricted to
materials were used (Borst et al., 2011). In participants who reported being in a high anxiety
addition, we note that gender differences on state. In fact, the activity level of the amygdala
mental rotation have been reported on overall depends in part on the anxiety state of the
responses times and accuracy*with men display- participants (e.g., Bishop et al., 2004), with
ing greater accuracy and shorter response times stronger responses for more anxious participants.
than women*but not on the slopes of the best- In addition, having seen a fearful stimulus
fitting lines, which is the only variable affected by could have facilitated mental rotation via efferent
the emotional state of the participants after projections from the amygdala to magnocellular
seeing fearful stimuli in the present study neurons of the visual cortex (Amaral, Behina, &
Finally, after the present study was conducted, Kelly, 2003). Several studies have demonstrated
Mammarella (2011) reported evidence that parti- that fear can facilitate low-spatial frequency
cipants were more accurate when performing a processing of visual representations created on
mental rotation task after seeing either sad or the basis of direct visual inputs (Bocanegra &
happy schematic faces. In contrast to Mammarella, Zeelenberg, 2009) or on the basis of information
we found no evidence that emotions affect the stored in long-term memory*such as visual
accuracy in a mental rotation task although the mental images (Borst & Kosslyn, 2010). The
same type of stimuli (e.g., Shepard & Metzler magnocellular pathway not only carries coarse
figures) were used in both studies. The mode of visual information but also transient and motion-
presentation of the emotions*subliminal in related visual information, information that is
Mammarella’s study versus supraliminal in the critical for imagining an object rotating in depth.
present study*might have modulated the effects This hypothesis is further supported by the fact
of emotions on participants’ performance in a that posterior parietal lobes*which support men-
mental rotation task. However, given that Mam- tal rotation*receive direct outputs from magno-
marella did not analyse RTs, there is no way to be cellular neurons of the visual cortex (DeYoe &
certain that the pattern of results reported show van Essen, 1988).
that emotions affect the mental rotation process To conclude, the facilitation effect of emotion
per se. In fact, Mammarella did not document on mental rotation reported in the present study
that participants actually used mental rotation* is the first evidence that emotion not only affects
which is typically revealed by the increase of RTs low-level visual processing in the ventral system
with increasing angular disparities between ob- but also spatial processing in the dorsal system.
jects, and hence these findings say nothing about Further studies would be necessary to determine
the nature of the cognitive processes that were whether emotions selectively affect mental rota-
facilitated. Indeed, Geiser, Lehmann, and Eid tion or also affect other types of spatial proces-
(2006) identified several strategies that can be sing, such as changing perspective or spatial
used to perform a mental rotation task, some of navigation. Our finding has direct implications
which do not rely on mentally rotating one of the for cognitive rehabilitation of patients who have
objects into congruence with the orientation of spatial deficits by suggesting that this rehabilita-
the other. Thus, the chronometric results reported tion should not only focus on the spatial process
 FEAR, ANXIETY, AND MENTAL ROTATION 671

impaired but also on the emotional state of the Mammarella, N. (2011). Is there a ‘‘special relation-
patients. Finally, the facilitation of mental rota- ship’’ between unconscious emotions and visual
imagery? Evidence from a mental rotation test.
tion after seeing fearful stimuli could stem from Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 444448.
an evolutionary adaptation to danger: In fearful Morris, J. S., Öhman, A., & Dolan, R. J. (1998).
situations, one needs to process visual information Conscious and unconscious emotional learning in
quickly to determine whether an object repre- the human amygdala. Nature, 393, 46770.
Neubauer, A. C., Bergner, S., & Schatz, M. (2010).
sents a danger. Thus, in certain situations when Two- vs. three-dimensional presentation of mental
the object is not in its canonical orientation, one rotation tasks: Sex differences and effects of training
might need to mentally rotate it to determine on performance and brain activation. Intelligence,
whether the object constitutes a threat. 38, 529539.
Parsons, T. D., Larson, P., Kratz, K., Thiebaux, M.,
Bluestein, B., Buckwalter, J. G., et al. (2004). Sex
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