title: Effects of Uncertainty on ERPs to Emotional Pictures Depend on Emotional Valence.
abstract: Uncertainty about the emotional content of an upcoming event has found to modulate neural activity to the event before its occurrence. However, it is still under debate whether the uncertainty effects occur after the occurrence of the event. To address this issue, participants were asked to view emotional pictures that were shortly after a cue, which either indicated a certain emotion of the picture or not. Both certain and uncertain cues were used by neutral symbols. The anticipatory phase (i.e., inter-trial interval, ITI) between the cue and the picture was short to enhance the effects of uncertainty. In addition, we used positive and negative pictures that differed only in valence but not in arousal to investigate whether the uncertainty effect was dependent on emotional valence. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded during the presentation of the pictures. Event-related potential (ERP) results showed that negative pictures evoked smaller P2 and late LPP but larger N2 in the uncertain as compared to the certain condition; whereas we did not find the uncertainty effect in early LPP. For positive pictures, the early LPP was larger in the uncertain as compared to the certain condition; however, there were no uncertainty effects in some other ERP components (e.g., P2, N2, and late LPP). The findings suggest that uncertainty modulates neural activity to emotional pictures and this modulation is altered by the valence of the pictures, indicating that individuals alter the allocation of attentional resources toward uncertain emotional pictures dependently on the valence of the pictures.
authors.affiliation: Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Center of Cooperative Innovation for Assessment and Promotion of National Mental Health, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal UniversityTianjin, China; Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of MuensterMuenster, Germany; Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, South China Normal UniversityGuangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Huiyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Center of Cooperative Innovation for Assessment and Promotion of National Mental Health, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal UniversityTianjin, China; Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, South China Normal UniversityGuangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, South China Normal UniversityGuangzhou, China; School of Education, Guangdong University of EducationGuangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jiafeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Center of Cooperative Innovation for Assessment and Promotion of National Mental Health, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Ruru
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Center of Cooperative Innovation for Assessment and Promotion of National Mental Health, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Center of Cooperative Innovation for Assessment and Promotion of National Mental Health, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Yiwen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: ERPs; LPP; N2; P2; emotion; uncertainty; valence