Visual adaptation to happy and sad faces and its aftereffects on the lateral visual fields

• Grant number: 17/21835-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2017
• End date: November 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Sergio Sheiji Fukusima
• Grantee: Thiago Marques Oliveira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The visual aftereffect to facial expressions consists in perceiving on a neutral face an opposite expression of a previous face exposed during an adaption phase. A previous research, analyzing the aftereffects to sad faces on the left visual field, found a discrepancy between the results and literature, which led us to formulate new hypotheses about the differences between the processing of sad and happy expressions by the left and the right brains by men and women. Based on this fact, this project aims to investigate the visual aftereffects to sad and happy faces on the right and the left visual fields of men and women, in order to check the replicability of the previous results as we monitor possible variables related to depression in the participants. This would be evaluated by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Psychophysical methods will be used to measure the visual aftereffects to facial expressions to achieve the goal of the research in depressive and non-depressive participants. (AU)