ArticleScientific reports2017
Snake scales, partial exposure, and the Snake Detection Theory: A human event-related potentials study.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- Dissecting disgust and fear in chimpanzees: From facilitation to disruption of cognitive processes.iScience · 2026Article
- Article
- ERP insights into speed control: role of risk types and levels.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Why Are Some Snakes More Terrifying and What Is Behind the Fear?Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Hooding cobras can get ahead of other snakes in the ability to evoke human fear.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2024Article
- Japanese monkeys rapidly noticed snake-scale cladded salamanders, similar to detecting snakes.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- No evidence of attentional prioritization for threatening targets in visual search.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Differential effects of threat types on attentional processes: a comparison of snakes and blood-injury-injection stimuli.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Attentional, emotional, and behavioral response toward spiders, scorpions, crabs, and snakes provides no evidence for generalized fear between spiders and scorpions.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Animals evoking fear in the Cradle of Humankind: snakes, scorpions, and large carnivores.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2023Article
- The bigger the threat, the longer the gaze? A cross-cultural study of Somalis and Czechs.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Are vipers prototypic fear-evoking snakes? A cross-cultural comparison of Somalis and Czechs.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- What determines the neural response to snakes in the infant brain? A systematic comparison of color and grayscale stimuli.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Do Spiders Ride on the Fear of Scorpions? A Cross-Cultural Eye Tracking Study.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Emotional processing of sadness and disgust evoked by disaster scenes.Brain and behavior · 2021Article
- Fear inoculation among snake experts.BMC psychiatry · 2021Article
- Titi monkey neophobia and visual abilities allow for fast responses to novel stimuli.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Early posterior negativity in humans to pictures of snakes and spiders: effects of proximity.Experimental brain research · 2020Article
- Are Humans Prepared to Detect, Fear, and Avoid Snakes? The Mismatch Between Laboratory and Ecological Evidence.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Review
- Snakes Represent Emotionally Salient Stimuli That May Evoke Both Fear and Disgust.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Studies of event-related potentials in humans have established larger early posterior negativity (EPN) in response to pictures depicting snakes than to pictures depicting other creatures. Ethological research has recently shown that macaques and wild vervet monkeys respond strongly to partially exposed snake models and scale patterns on the snake skin. Here, we examined whether snake skin patterns and partially exposed snakes elicit a larger EPN in humans. In Task 1, we employed pictures with close-ups of snake skins, lizard skins, and bird plumage. In task 2, we employed pictures of partially exposed snakes, lizards, and birds. Participants watched a random rapid serial visual presentation of these pictures. The EPN was scored as the mean activity (225-300 ms after picture onset) at occipital and parieto-occipital electrodes. Consistent with previous studies, and with the Snake Detection Theory, the EPN was significantly larger for snake skin pictures than for lizard skin and bird plumage pictures, and for lizard skin pictures than for bird plumage pictures. Likewise, the EPN was larger for partially exposed snakes than for partially exposed lizards and birds. The results suggest that the EPN snake effect is partly driven by snake skin scale patterns which are otherwise rare in nature.
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