Emotional words facilitate lexical but not early visual processing

Abstract

BackgroundEmotional scenes and faces have shown to capture and bind visual resources at early sensory processing stages, i.e. in early visual cortex. However, emotional words have led to mixed results. In the current study ERPs were assessed simultaneously with steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) to measure attention effects on early visual activity in emotional word processing. Neutral and negative words were flickered at 12.14 Hz whilst participants performed a Lexical Decision Task.ResultsEmotional word content did not modulate the 12.14 Hz SSVEP amplitude, neither did word lexicality. However, emotional words affected the ERP. Negative compared to neutral words as well as words compared to pseudowords lead to enhanced deflections in the P2 time range indicative of lexico-semantic access. The N400 was reduced for negative compared to neutral words and enhanced for pseudowords compared to words indicating facilitated semantic processing of emotional words. LPC amplitudes reflected word lexicality and thus the task-relevant response.ConclusionIn line with previous ERP and imaging evidence, the present results indicate that written emotional words are facilitated in processing only subsequent to visual analysis.

Selective visual attention to emotional words: Early parallel frontal and visual activations followed by interactive effects in visual cortex

“…Thus, when participants actively focused on the words' valence, they probably also retrieved more information about their semantic meaning. A previous ERP study of attentional cuing toward negative words found a P2 effect for content cueing [Kanske et al, ], supporting effects of affective‐semantic orienting in the P2/EPN time window [see, Trauer et al, for a discussion of the similarity of P2 and EPN effects in word processing].…”

“…G 5 Gyrus; Inf 5 inferior, Mid 5 middle, Sup 5 superior. Within significant main effects of emotions, post hoc differences were only found for the comparison emotional nouns > neutral nouns r Selective Visual Attention to Emotional Words r r 3583 r A previous ERP study of attentional cuing toward negative words found a P2 effect for content cueing [Kanske et al, 2011], supporting effects of affective-semantic orienting in the P2/EPN time window [see, Trauer et al, 2015 for a discussion of the similarity of P2 and EPN effects in word processing]. Superior frontal sources could reflect the evaluative nature of the present task.…”

Steady state visual evoked potentials in reading aloud: Effects of lexicality, frequency and orthographic familiarity

“…(Ding, Sperling, & Srinivasan, 2005) found a reversed effect of attention on SSVEP amplitude at frequencies in the lower alpha band. However, in a recent study, SSVEP amplitude was completely unaffected by emotional word content, and more importantly for the present discussion, by the lexical status of the string (Trauer et al, 2015). While the presentation time and stimulation frequency used by Trauer and coll.…”

“…Indeed, both studies reported results relative to few occipital electrodes that reflect activity in early visual cortex only. On the contrary, the effect of emotional words should start at later lexico-semantic stages (Trauer et al, 2015).…”

“…SSVEP paradigms with flickering words have previously been used to study the processing of emotional content of words. In a study by Trauer et al (2015) using a lexical decision task, neither emotional content nor lexicality modulated SSVEPs generated by flickering words at 12.14 Hz. In contrast, in a study by Koban et al (2010), emotional content modulated the SSVEPs but in the opposite direction than the one that was expected, with pleasant word showing reduced power compared to neutral words.…”