title: The time course of the influence of valence and arousal on the implicit processing of affective pictures.
abstract: In the current study, we investigated the time course of the implicit processing of affective pictures with an orthogonal design of valence (negative vs. positive) by arousal (low vs. high). Previous studies with explicit tasks suggested that valence mainly modulates early event-related potential (ERP) components, whereas arousal mainly modulates late components. However, in this study with an implicit task, we observed significant interactions between valence and arousal at both early and late stages over both parietal and frontal sites, which were reflected by three different ERP components: P2a (100-200 ms), N2 (200-300 ms), and P3 (300-400 ms). Furthermore, there was also a significant main effect of arousal on P2b (200-300 ms) over parieto-occipital sites. Our results suggest that valence and arousal effects on implicit affective processing are more complicated than previous ERP studies with explicit tasks have revealed.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Chunliang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xiangru
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Ruina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Xiaoqin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Mai
authors.forename: Yue-Jia
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult