Stimulus novelty and emotion perception: the near absence of habituation in the visual cortex.
In rapid serial visual presentation of pictures, an early event-related brain potential component shows enlarged negativity over occipital regions for emotional pictures compared with neutral pictures. The present study examined whether the processing of emotional target pictures varies as a function of stimulus repetition. Accordingly, pictures of erotica, neutral contents, and mutilations were repeatedly presented (90 times) while the electroencephalogram was recorded with a 129 dense sensor array. As in previous studies, emotional pictures were associated with a larger posterior negativity than neutral pictures. Furthermore, differential emotion processing did not vary as a function of stimulus repetition and was similarly expressed across blocks of picture presentation. These findings suggest the near absence of habituation in differential emotion processing during perceptual processing.
Schupp
Harald T
HT
Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany. Harald.Schupp@uni-konstanz.de
Stockburger
Jessica
J
Codispoti
Maurizio
M
Junghöfer
Markus
M
Weike
Almut I
AI
Hamm
Alfons O
AO
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*