title: The late positive potential (LPP) in response to varying types of emotional and cigarette stimuli in smokers: a content comparison.
abstract: Identifying neural mechanisms associated with addiction has substantially improved the overall understanding of addictive processes. Indeed, research suggests that drug-associated cues may take advantage of neural mechanisms originally intended for emotional processing of stimuli relevant to survival. In this study, we investigated cortical responses to several categories of emotional cues (erotic, romance, pleasant objects, mutilation, sadness, and unpleasant objects) as well as two types of smoking-related cues (people smoking and cigarette-related objects). We recorded ERPs from 180 smokers prior to their participation in a smoking cessation clinical trial and assessed emotional salience by measuring the amplitude of the late positive potential (LPP; 400 to 600 ms after picture onset). As expected, emotional and cigarette-related pictures prompted a significantly larger LPP than neutral pictures. The amplitude of the LPP increased as a function of picture arousal level, with high-arousing erotic and mutilation pictures showing the largest response in contrast to low-arousing pleasant and unpleasant objects, which showed the smallest response (other than neutral). Compared to females, male participants showed larger LPPs for high-arousing erotic and mutilation pictures. However, unlike emotional pictures, no difference was noted for the LPP between cigarette stimuli containing people versus those containing only objects, suggesting that in contrast to emotional objects, cigarette-related objects are highly relevant for smokers. We also compared the smokers to a small (N=40), convenience sample of never-smokers. We found that never-smokers had significantly smaller LPPs in response to erotic and cigarette stimuli containing only objects compared to smokers.
authors: Department of Behavioral Science, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77230-1439, USA. jminnix@mdanderson.org
authors: Jennifer A
authors: JA
authors: Minnix
authors: Francesco
authors: F
authors: Versace
authors: Jason D
authors: JD
authors: Robinson
authors: Cho Y
authors: CY
authors: Lam
authors: Jeffrey M
authors: JM
authors: Engelmann
authors: Yong
authors: Y
authors: Cui
authors: Victoria L
authors: VL
authors: Brown
authors: Paul M
authors: PM
authors: Cinciripini
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D003463:Cues; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D004882:Erotica; D005006:Ethnicity; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology*; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ERP; Emotion; Event related potentials; LPP; Nicotine dependence; Smoking
references: Emotion. 2010 Dec;10(6):767-82
references: 21058848
references: Am J Epidemiol. 1984 Jun;119(6):997-1004
references: 6731436
references: Addiction. 2000 Aug;95 Suppl 2:S91-117
references: 11002906
references: Int J Psychophysiol. 2009 Jun;72(3):299-306
references: 19232373
references: Int J Psychophysiol. 2007 Sep;65(3):284-93
references: 17570550
references: J Consult Clin Psychol. 2004 Apr;72(2):139-54
references: 15065950
references: Am J Psychiatry. 2002 Oct;159(10):1642-52
references: 12359667
references: J Consult Clin Psychol. 2002 Feb;70(1):216-27
references: 11860048
references: Eur J Neurosci. 2011 May;33(9):1716-23
references: 21450043
references: J Consult Clin Psychol. 2002 Apr;70(2):356-61
references: 11952193
references: Annu Rev Psychol. 2003;54:25-53
references: 12185211
references: J Clin Psychiatry. 1998;59 Suppl 20:22-33;quiz 34-57
references: 9881538
references: Brain Res Brain Res Rev. 2001 Oct;36(2-3):129-38
references: 11690609
references: Am J Psychiatry. 2005 Aug;162(8):1414-22
references: 16055762
references: Biol Psychol. 2008 Mar;77(3):247-65
references: 18164800
references: Psychophysiology. 2002 Sep;39(5):641-9
references: 12236331
references: Behav Brain Res. 1995 Sep;70(1):77-94
references: 8519431
references: J Pers Soc Psychol. 1988 Jun;54(6):1063-70
references: 3397865
references: Nicotine Tob Res. 2006 Jun;8(3):361-9
references: 16801294
references: Addict Biol. 2011 Apr;16(2):296-307
references: 21182573
references: J Behav Med. 1982 Sep;5(3):343-51
references: 7131548
references: Nicotine Tob Res. 2004 Dec;6(6):985-96
references: 15801571
references: Int J Psychophysiol. 2006 Nov;62(2):224-32
references: 16492391
references: Emotion. 2001 Sep;1(3):300-19
references: 12934688
references: J Consult Clin Psychol. 1996 Apr;64(2):366-79
references: 8871421
references: Eur J Neurosci. 2008 Feb;27(4):976-83
references: 18333968
references: Br J Addict. 1991 Sep;86(9):1119-27
references: 1932883
references: Psychophysiology. 2011 Oct;48(10):1397-404
references: 21486291
references: Psychophysiology. 2000 Mar;37(2):257-61
references: 10731776
references: Neuropsychopharmacology. 2010 Apr;35(5):1209-25
references: 20090671
references: Emotion. 2008 Apr;8(2):250-5
references: 18410198
references: Biol Psychol. 2010 Jul;84(3):437-50
references: 19879918
references: Biol Psychol. 2000 Mar;52(2):95-111
references: 10699350
references: Psychophysiology. 2004 May;41(3):441-9
references: 15102130
references: J Psychopharmacol. 2008 Nov;22(8):836-42
references: 18208907
references: Psychophysiology. 2009 Jan;46(1):1-11
references: 18778317
references: Nicotine Tob Res. 2006 Jun;8(3):379-92
references: 16801296
references: Brain Res Brain Res Rev. 1993 Sep-Dec;18(3):247-91
references: 8401595
references: Dev Neuropsychol. 2010;35(2):129-55
references: 20390599
references: Psychophysiology. 2010 May 1;47(3):435-41
references: 20070579
references: J Clin Psychiatry. 1996 Nov;57(11):534-8
references: 8968303
references: Neuroscience. 2010 Sep 29;170(1):281-8
references: 20451585