The time course of emotional picture processing: an event-related potential study using a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm

Abstract

The present study recorded event-related potentials using rapid serial visual presentation paradigm to explore the time course of emotionally charged pictures. Participants completed a dual-target task as quickly and accurately as possible, in which they were asked to judge the gender of the person depicted (task 1) and the valence (positive, neutral, or negative) of the given picture (task 2). The results showed that the amplitudes of the P2 component were larger for emotional pictures than they were for neutral pictures, and this finding represents brain processes that distinguish emotional stimuli from non-emotional stimuli. Furthermore, positive, neutral, and negative pictures elicited late positive potentials with different amplitudes, implying that the differences between emotions are recognized. Additionally, the time course for emotional picture processing was consistent with the latter two stages of a three-stage model derived from studies on emotional facial expression processing and emotional adjective processing. The results of the present study indicate that in the three-stage model of emotion processing, the middle and late stages are more universal and stable, and thus occur at similar time points when using different stimuli (faces, words, or scenes).

Emotion Processing by ERP Combined with Development and Plasticity

“…For emotional faces, Calvo et al equally analyzed the LPP response to emotional faces, but the emotion modulation of the component was only seen in upper face half condition with an augmented LPP amplitudes for angry faces than those for the other expressions (neutral, happy, and surprise) [ 146 ]. The results supplied a further support for the previous findings regarding the relationship between emotion processing and LPP and additionally to some extent are supported by a subsequent study with RSVP involved [ 131 , 134 , 147 , 164 ]. Another ERP study employed the dynamical emotional faces which constituted emotional clips and also found the significant LPC difference among fear, anger, surprise, disgust, sad, and neutral (fear > the rest; anger and surprise > happy) [ 165 ].…”

How the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Controls Affective Processing in Absence of Visual Awareness – Insights From a Combined EEG-rTMS Study

“…Electro- and magnetoencephalographic (EEG/MEG) studies have revealed that early (∼80–120 ms after stimulus onset) ( Keil et al, 2002 ; Olofsson and Polich, 2007 ; Feng et al, 2014 ; Zhu et al, 2015 ) and mid-latency (∼120–300 ms) ( Liddell et al, 2004 ; Williams et al, 2004 ; Balconi and Lucchiari, 2005b , 2007 ; Kiss and Eimer, 2008 ; Pegna et al, 2008 ; Kim et al, 2013 ; Nakajima et al, 2015 ) event-related potentials and fields (ERPs/ERFs) in response to both subliminal and supraliminal negative material differ from those to positive or neutral material. For example, Liddell et al (2004) recorded ERPs in response to subliminally (10 ms) and supraliminally (170 ms) presented backward-masked fearful and neutral faces.…”

Neural Temporal Dynamics of Social Exclusion Elicited by Averted Gaze: An Event-Related Potentials Study

“…By using emotional stimuli including emotional words (Ponz et al, 2014 ), emotional pictures (Carretié et al, 2001 ; Delplanque et al, 2004 ; Huang and Luo, 2006 ; Zhu et al, 2015 ), and even esthetic images (Wang et al, 2012 ; Muñoz and Martín-Loeches, 2015 ), numerous affective ERP studies have demonstrated that the frontal P200 amplitudes elicited by negative stimuli are significantly greater than those elicited by positive stimuli. Generally, the P200 component has been linked to early attention according to affective features of the stimuli to be attended.…”