Working memory load reduces the late positive potential and this effect is attenuated with increasing anxiety

Emotion regulation decreases the processing of arousing stimuli, as indexed by the late positive potential (LPP), an electrocortical component that varies in amplitude with emotional arousal. Emotion regulation increases activity in the prefrontal areas associated with cognitive control, including the dosolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The present study manipulated working memory load, known to activate the DLPFC, and recorded the LPP elicited by aversive and neutral IAPS pictures presented during the retention interval. The LPP was larger on low-load compared to high-load trials, and on trials with aversive compared to neutral pictures. These LPP data suggest that emotional content and working memory load have opposing effects on attention to distracting stimuli. State anxiety was associated with reduced modulation of the LPP by working memory load. Results are discussed in terms of competition for attention between emotion and cognition and suggest a relationship between DLPFC activation and the allocation of attentional resources to distracting visual stimuli–a relationship that may be disrupted with increasing anxiety.     

对恐怖情绪的调节：认知重评优于表达抑制 ——一样ERP研究

摘要 本研究采用事件相关电位（ERP）技术,通过测量由视觉诱发的脑电成分晚正波（LPP）来比较情绪调节策略在生理电特征上的差异,进一步探讨认知重评和表达抑制的优劣。实验结果表明：（1）从波幅的角度来比较：在400-600ms时间窗口内,认知重评条件下恐怖图片诱发的LPP波幅显著小于在自由观看条件下的波幅,而表达抑制和自由观看组所诱发的LPP波幅差异较小。（2）从时间进程的角度来比较：认知重评与自由观看组的差异发生在400ms并持续到600ms,甚至以后;而表达抑制和自由观看之间的差异发生在450ms但是只持续到550ms。这表明认知重评相较于表达抑制,对负性情绪起调节作用开始较早,并且持续时间较长。这为认知重评优于表达抑制策略提供了神经生理学上的证据。     

The role of activation charge in an emotional categorisation task for words: insight from the perspective of a dual process theory of the activation mechanisms

The role of activation (arousal and subjective significance) was investigated for word processing in an explicit emotional judgement task using a 3?×?3 manipulation. We expected to find dissociative effects for both factors. The behavioural results showed that the fraction of words perceived as emotional increases with increasing arousal or subjective significance. The electrophysiological (EEG) results showed that both factors influence ERP amplitudes. General effects of subjective significance were found for early (60–120?ms and 120–250?ms, low subjective significant stimuli evoked higher amplitude than other conditions) and late (350–490?ms, high subjective significant stimuli evoked higher amplitude than other conditions) time ranges. Localised arousal effects were found in 250–350?ms and 350–490?ms time ranges at posterior (amplitude for high arousing stimuli was less positive than for other conditions) and left frontal ROIs (diverse pattern). Localised subjective significance effects were found for the 350–490?ms time range at the posterior ROIs (amplitude for high subjective significant stimuli was more positive than for other conditions). The results of this study suggest that the effects of arousal reported in earlier studies might account for a more complex form of activation that was recently postulated, namely subjective significance.     

Event-related potentials of emotional memory: encoding pleasant,unpleasant, and neutral pictures

Emotional events tend to be remembered better than nonemotional events. We investigated this phenomenon by measuring two event-related potential (ERP) effects: the emotion effect (more positive ERPs for pleasant or unpleasant stimuli than for neutral stimuli) and the subsequent memory effect (more positive ERPs for subsequently remembered items than for subsequently forgotten items). ERPs were measured while subjects rated the emotional content of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures. As was expected, subsequent recall was better for pleasant and unpleasant pictures than for neutral pictures. The emotion effect was sensitive to arousal in parietal electrodes and to both arousal and valence in frontocentral electrodes. The subsequent memory effect at centroparietal electrodes was greater for emotional pictures than for neutral pictures during an early epoch (400-600 msec). This result suggests that emotional information has privileged access to processing resources, possibly leading to better memory formation.     

不同愉悦度面孔阈下情绪启动效应:来自ERP的证据

采用事件相关电位技术,研究阈下情绪启动效应。实验中的因素是阈下呈现的情绪启动面孔的愉悦度,分为高、低两个水平。被试的任务是对中性靶刺激面孔进行情绪判断。结果发现:被试在对靶刺激进行情绪判断时出现与启动刺激愉悦度趋于一致的启动效应;低愉悦度面孔作启动刺激条件下N1和P2的波幅显著大于高愉悦度面孔作为启动刺激的条件;不同愉悦度情绪面孔的阈下启动效应是由于启动刺激影响了对靶刺激的知觉加工所致。     

晚期正成分的时间-空间迁移模式在情绪调节发展研究中的应用

近二十年,使用认知神经科学手段探讨情绪调节成为了研究的热点。晚期正成分(Late Positive Potential,LPP)是情绪调节脑电研究中的一个典型成分,在不同的时间窗中分析LPP的波幅的变化及其优势激活脑区的迁移能够反映情绪调节加工过程中个体由对情绪刺激的感知到相应的认知调控过程的转变。LPP的时间-空间迁移模式被应用于情绪调节的发展研究,揭示从童年到青少年再到成年期个体情绪的潜在神经机制。研究者关注幼儿期、童年期、青少期、成人期个体在情绪调节加工过程中LPP波幅的变化及其时间-空间迁移模式特征,把不同年龄段个体情绪调节的发展特点与其大脑关键脑区(主要是前额叶)发育状况进行联系,为儿童身体发育和心理发展的主题提供更多的证据支持。未来的研究应加强对LPP在异常发展研究中应用,关注大脑发育与激素变化对LPP变化的影响,并加强对LPP调节效应的个体差异等问题的探讨。     

Affective valence and P300 when stimulus arousal level is controlled

Visual stimuli from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) were employed in a modified oddball paradigm to elicit the P300 event-related brain potential (ERP) in young adult females (N=12). The pictures varied on valence (negative, neutral, positive) ratings but had the same medium arousal level ratings. The images were presented as targets with a standard stimulus composed of red/white triangles designed to mimic the spatial frequency of the pictures. P300 amplitude from negative relative to neutral stimuli was smaller over frontal areas, whereas amplitude from positive relative to neutral stimuli did not differ. P300 amplitude differences among valence categories were consistent across the midline electrodes, and did not change over the parietal area where arousal effects are typically observed. The findings suggest that valence affects P300 frontal amplitude, and arousal level should be controlled when using emotional stimuli to elicit ERPs. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

Influence of emotional valence and arousal on the spread of activation in memory

Controversy still persists on whether emotional valence and arousal influence cognitive activities. Our study sought to compare how these two factors foster the spread of activation within the semantic network. In a lexical decision task, prime words were varied depending on the valence (pleasant or unpleasant) or on the level of emotional arousal (high or low). Target words were carefully selected to avoid semantic priming effects, as well as to avoid arousing specific emotions (neutral). Three SOA durations (220, 420 and 720 ms) were applied across three independent groups. Results indicate that at 220 ms, the effect of arousal is significantly higher than the effect of valence in facilitating spreading activation while at 420 ms, the effect of valence is significantly higher than the effect of arousal in facilitating spreading activation. These findings suggest that affect is a sequential process involving the successive intervention of arousal and valence.     

The persistence of attention to emotion: brain potentials during and after picture presentation

Emotional stimuli have been shown to elicit increased perceptual processing and attentional allocation. The late positive potential (LPP) is a sustained P300-like component of the event-related potential that is enhanced after the presentation of pleasant and unpleasant pictures as compared with neutral pictures. In this study, the LPP was measured using dense array electroencephalograph both before and after pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant images to examine the time course of attentional allocation toward emotional stimuli. Results from 17 participants confirmed that the LPP was larger after emotional than neutral images and that this effect persisted for 800 ms after pleasant picture offset and at least 1,000 ms after unpleasant picture offset. The persistence of increased attention after unpleasant compared to pleasant stimuli is consistent with the existence of a negativity bias. Overall, these results indicate that attentional capture of emotion continues well beyond picture presentation and that this can be measured with the LPP. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

情绪效价和唤醒对熟悉性和回想的不同影响

本研究检验了情绪的效价和唤醒对记忆提取阶段熟悉性过程和回想过程的影响及其心理机制。结果发现,编码阶段无分心任务时,积极图片的高、低自信再认准确率均高于消极图片,而唤醒对于高自信再认准确率的影响只限于消极图片;在编码阶段设置分心任务时,发现积极和消极的高唤醒图片的高自信再认准确率显著高于低唤醒图片。这些结果说明情绪的效价影响了熟悉性和回想两类记忆过程,而唤醒只影响回想过程,效价效应是编码阶段被试调用认知资源对积极图片进行精细加工的结果,而唤醒对回想过程的影响是自动编码高唤醒刺激细节的结果。     

记忆编码中目标与背景的情绪一致性对记忆提取的影响

摘 要 本研究将经典情绪启动范式和学习-再认范式相结合,探讨学习时启动与目标的情绪一致性对目标再认的影响。在记忆编码阶段,以情绪面孔图片为启动刺激、一般情绪图片为目标刺激,要求被试对目标图片的效价进行判断;在提取阶段向被试呈现一般情绪图片,要求被试判断是否在前一阶段见过。结果表明,编码阶段的加工背景对记忆提取产生了显著影响。一致启动促进了认知加工与记忆编码,提高了再认正确率。ERP结果也表明,在目标刺激呈现后300-500ms,编码时的情绪一致性对再认阶段消极目标诱发的ERP产生了显著影响。     

The role of attention in the associative binding of emotionally arousing words

In the present study, we examined the role of attention in modulating the memory benefit of emotional arousal for same-valence word pair associations. To assess the role of attention either at encoding or at retrieval, participants studied lists of positive, neutral, and negative words pairs under full attention, divided attention at encoding, or divided attention at retrieval, and then were tested on the single words and on the associations between words. Consistent with past studies, memory accuracy was higher for emotional items than for neutral items, and no memory difference was observed across emotional arousal conditions for associations when encoding occurred under full attention. In contrast, memory accuracy was higher for emotionally arousing items and associations relative to neutral items when encoding occurred under divided attention. Finally, dividing attention at retrieval revealed similar effects across emotion conditions, suggesting that retrieval of emotional stimuli relative to neutral stimuli, unlike encoding, does not benefit from automatic processing. The discussion emphasizes the role of automatic processing during encoding in producing the benefit of emotionally enhanced memory, as well as the extent to which controlled attention is responsible for eliminating or reversing (relative to neutral materials) emotionally enhanced memory for associations. Additionally, the implications of the divided-attention-at-retrieval manipulation include consideration of the way in which emotional items may be consciously processed during encoding.     

个体神经质水平对情绪加工的影响 ——事件相关电位研究

采用事件相关电位方法探讨个体神经质水平对情绪加工的影响,测量并比较了神经质高水平个体和神经质低水平个体观看三类图片（积极、中性和消极）时的事件相关电位。结果发现,P120、N130、P230和N250成分的刺激效价主效应显著,积极、消极情绪刺激与中性刺激诱发的ERP差异最早开始于刺激呈现后的120ms左右。其次,在额叶和额中央部位的晚正电位上,神经质水平与刺激效价交互作用显著,神经质高分组与低分组对消极情绪刺激的反应有明显差异,而两组被试对积极、中性刺激的反应没有表现出差异。结果支持神经质与消极情绪相关,个体的神经质水平主要影响额叶和额中央叶的晚期负性情绪加工     

Emotion and memory: A recognition advantage for positive and negative words independent of arousal

Much evidence indicates that emotion enhances memory, but the precise effects of the two primary factors of arousal and valence remain at issue. Moreover, the current knowledge of emotional memory enhancement is based mostly on small samples of extremely emotive stimuli presented in unnaturally high proportions without adequate affective, lexical, and semantic controls. To investigate how emotion affects memory under conditions of natural variation, we tested whether arousal and valence predicted recognition memory for over 2500 words that were not sampled for their emotionality, and we controlled a large variety of lexical and semantic factors. Both negative and positive stimuli were remembered better than neutral stimuli, whether arousing or calming. Arousal failed to predict recognition memory, either independently or interactively with valence. Results support models that posit a facilitative role of valence in memory. This study also highlights the importance of stimulus controls and experimental designs in research on emotional memory.     

Emotion processing in children who do and do not stutter: An ERP study of electrocortical reactivity and regulation to peer facial expressions

PurposeEvent-related brain potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate the neural correlates of emotion processing in 5- to 8-year-old children who do and do not stutter.MethodsParticipants were presented with an audio contextual cue followed by images of threatening (angry/fearful) and neutral facial expressions from similarly aged peers. Three conditions differed in audio-image pairing: neutral context-neutral expression (neutral condition), negative context-threatening expression (threat condition), and reappraisal context-threatening expression (reappraisal condition). These conditions reflected social stimuli that are ecologically valid to the everyday life of children.ResultsP100, N170, and late positive potential (LPP) ERP components were elicited over parietal and occipital electrodes. The threat condition elicited an increased LPP mean amplitude compared to the neutral condition across our participants, suggesting increased emotional reactivity to threatening facial expressions. In addition, LPP amplitude decreased during the reappraisal condition— evidence of emotion regulation. No group differences were observed in the mean amplitude of ERP components between children who do and do not stutter. Furthermore, dimensions of childhood temperament and stuttering severity were not strongly correlated with LPP elicitation.ConclusionThese findings are suggestive that, at this young age, children who stutter exhibit typical brain activation underlying emotional reactivity and regulation to social threat from peer facial expressions.     

独乐乐与众乐乐？社会与非社会正性情绪刺激的加工差异：一个ERP研究

个体情绪加工具有其生物基础,也受到文化因素的影响。社会性和非社会性情绪刺激加工可能存在不同的机制。然而,以往大多数研究主要关注负性情绪的加工差异。因此,本研究选取大学生被试20名采用图片感知范式（Picture Perception Paradigm）探讨个体在加工社会性和非社会性正性情绪刺激的脑电位活动差异。研究发现：（1）在P1成分上,情绪图片诱发的波幅要显著大于中性图片。（2）在N2成分上,正性社会情绪图片诱发的波幅要显著大于正性非社会情绪图片（3）在早期时间窗中,由正性社会情绪图片与非社会情绪图片诱发的LPP波幅差异不显著。在中期时间窗中,正性社会情绪图片与非社会情绪图片的LPP波幅差异显著。晚期时间窗中,正性社会情绪图片诱发的LPP波幅显著大于正性非社会情绪图片。由此,相对于非社会性请刺激来说,正性社会情绪刺激在加工上可能占据优势地位。     

自我关注重评和情境关注重评情绪调节策略及对随后认知控制的影响

认知重评作为高度适应性的情绪调节策略, 是否消耗随后任务所需的认知资源仍存在争议。以往研究把重评作为单一策略研究, 并未区分重评亚型对这一问题进行探索。本研究采用情绪调节与认知控制结合的任务, 考察自我关注和情境关注两种重评亚型调节情绪的效果, 以及对随后认知控制的影响是否存在差异。结果发现两种重评策略都能有效调节情绪, 但调节效果存在差异。从行为角度看, 与中性刺激相比, 负性刺激会引发更高的负性情绪水平, 对随后冲突任务的认知控制能力更差。进一步从神经机制水平来看, 增加负性情绪可能会进一步消耗随后任务可用的认知资源, 与自我关注重评相比, 采用情境关注重评降低负性情绪后, 对随后冲突任务的认知控制能力更强。说明两种重评亚型并不同质, 不仅在调节情绪的效果上存在差异, 而且会引发不同的认知控制后果; 同时, 负性情绪水平越高, 认知控制能力可能会越差。     

Emotional scenes elicit more pronounced self-reported emotional experience and greater EPN and LPP modulation when compared to emotional faces

Emotional faces and scenes carry a wealth of overlapping and distinct perceptual information. Despite widespread use in the investigation of emotional perception, expressive face and evocative scene stimuli are rarely assessed in the same experiment. Here, we evaluated self-reports of arousal and pleasantness, as well as early and late event-related potentials (e.g., N170, early posterior negativity [EPN], late positive potential [LPP]) as subjects viewed neutral and emotional faces and scenes, including contents representing anger, fear, and joy. Results demonstrate that emotional scenes were rated as more evocative than emotional faces, as only scenes produced elevated self-reports of arousal. In addition, viewing scenes resulted in more extreme ratings of pleasantness (and unpleasantness) than did faces. EEG results indicate that both expressive faces and emotional scenes evoke enhanced negativity in the N170 component, while the EPN and LPP components show significantly enhanced modulation only by scene, relative to face stimuli. These data suggest that viewing emotional scenes results in a more pronounced emotional experience that is associated with reliable modulation of visual event-related potentials that are implicated in emotional circuits in the brain.     

Immediate emotion-enhanced memory dependent on arousal and valence: The role of automatic and controlled processing

The phenomenon that emotional stimuli are better remembered than neutral ones is called emotion-enhanced memory (EEM). Previous studies have shown that both valence and arousal of stimuli contributed to EEM. Kensinger and Corkin (2004) proposed that the EEM dependent on arousal was associated with automatic encoding processes, whereas the EEM dependent on valence was associated with controlled encoding processes. Their experiment with negative words provided some evidence for this associative pattern. However, it is unclear whether the observed association that occurred with negative emotional stimuli could be replicated with positive emotional stimuli. To further examine this issue, two experiments were conducted to investigate the immediate EEM of emotional words in three different attention conditions using a divided attention (DA) paradigm. Results indicated that the immediate EEM dependent on valence was associated with controlled processing, while the immediate EEM dependent on arousal was not always associated with automatic processing. The immediate EEM dependent on arousal for negative stimuli was associated with automatic processing, whereas the immediate EEM dependent on arousal for positive stimuli was associated with controlled processing. Therefore, the immediate EEM dependent on arousal, whether it is associated with automatic or controlled processing, is moderated by the valence of stimuli.     

特质焦虑初中生使用减弱调节策略的效果:一项ERP研究

采用情绪反应性-调节图片任务,考察特质焦虑青少年在下调负性情绪反应时的神经生理变化。结果发现,从行为学数据上看,两组被试都能达到下调目标,但低特质焦虑组的调节能力较强。从脑电数据上看,在刺激呈现之后300-600ms,高特质焦虑被试在负性情绪减弱调节效应方面显著小于低特质焦虑被试。在600-1000ms,高特质焦虑被试产生的LPP显著大于低特质焦虑被试。在1000ms以后,两组被试不存在显著差异。这就表明,我国高特质焦虑青少年对情绪反应有意调节能力总体较好,但较低特质焦虑青少年而言可能存在一定滞后性。