title: Non-voluntary and voluntary processing of emotional prosody: an event-related potentials study.
abstract: The present study investigated whether event-related potentials (ERPs) reflect non-voluntary vs voluntary processing of emotional prosody. ERPs were obtained while participants processed emotional information non-voluntarily (i.e. while evaluating semantic characteristics of a stimulus) and voluntarily (i.e. while evaluating emotional characteristics of a stimulus). Results suggest that emotional prosody is processed around 160 ms after stimulus onset under non-voluntary processing conditions (when the attention is diverted from the emotional meaning of the tone of voice); and around 360 ms under voluntary processing conditions. The findings support the notion that emotional prosody is processed non-voluntarily in the comprehension of a spoken message.
authors.affiliation: New Jersey Neuroscience Institute, JFK Medical Center, Edison, NJ 08818, USA. iwambacq@solarishs.org
authors.forename: Ilse J A
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Wambacq
authors.forename: Kelly J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Shea-Miller
authors.forename: Abuhuziefa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abubakr
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication