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Contemporary society faces significant challenges that can lead to stress-induced tunnel vision. Positive affect can counteract these effects by expanding humans’ attentional scope, potentially promoting resilience and creativity. This preregistered triple-blind study investigated the role of endogenous opioids in mediating attentional broadening following reward receipt.
Methods
Using a placebo-controlled crossover design, 40 volunteers underwent two sessions separated by at least 1 week, receiving either 50 mg of naltrexone or a placebo. Participants completed a Navon letters task designed to contrast the effects of reward receipt versus reward anticipation on attentional scope.
Results
As predicted, our results show that the attentional broadening observed after reward receipt under placebo was eliminated when opioid receptors were blocked. Naltrexone did not result in blunted reward anticipation effects on task performance or attentional narrowing.
Conclusions
This study highlights the role of endogenous opioids in attentional breadth and their potential for cognitive flexibility and resilience through natural positive experiences, with potential implications for mental health and stress management.
Humans can focus their attention narrowly (e.g., to read this text) or broadly (e.g., to determine which way a large crowd of people are moving). This Element comprehensively considers attentional breadth. Section 1 introduces the concept of attentional breadth, while Section 2 considers measures of attentional breadth. In particular, this section provides a critical discussion of the types of psychometric evidence which should be sought to establish the validity of measures of attentional breadth and reviews the available evidence through this lens. Section 3 considers the visual task performance consequences of attentional breadth, including prescribing several key methodological criteria that studies that manipulate attentional breadth need to meet, as well as a discussion of relevant theories and avenues for future theoretical development. Section 4 discusses the utility of the exogenous–endogenous distinction from covert shifts of attention for understanding the performance consequences of attentional breadth. Finally, Section 5 provides concluding remarks.
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