Cued uncertainty modulates later recognition of emotional pictures: An ERP study.
Previous studies have shown that uncertainty about the emotional content of an upcoming event modulates event-related potentials (ERPs) during the encoding of the event, and this modulation is affected by whether there are cues (i.e., cued uncertainty) or not (i.e., uncued uncertainty) prior to the encoding of the uncertain event. Recently, we showed that uncued uncertainty affected ERPs in later recognition of the emotional event. However, it is as yet unknown how the ERP effects of recognition are modulated by cued uncertainty. To address this issue, participants were asked to view emotional (negative and neutral) pictures that were presented after cues. The cues either indicated the emotional content of the pictures (the certain condition) or not (the cued uncertain condition). Subsequently, participants had to perform an unexpected old/new task in which old and novel pictures were shown without any cues. ERP data in the old/new task showed smaller P2 amplitudes for neutral pictures in the cued uncertain condition compared to the certain condition, but this uncertainty effect was not observed for negative pictures. Additionally, P3 amplitudes were generally enlarged for pictures in the cued uncertain condition. Taken together, the present findings indicate that cued uncertainty alters later recognition of emotional events in relevance to feature processing and attention allocation.
Institute of Applied Psychology, Guangdong University of Finance, 510521 Guangzhou, China; Laboratory for Behavioral and Regional Finance, Guangdong University of Finance, Guangzhou, 510521, Guangdong, China.
Huiyan
H
Lin
Shaxi Primary School, 518000 Shenzhen, China; Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, 510631 Guangzhou, China.
Jing
J
Xiang
Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, 510631 Guangzhou, China.
Saili
S
Li
School of Education, Guangdong University of Education, 510303 Guangzhou, China.
Jiafeng
J
Liang
Institute of Applied Psychology, Guangdong University of Finance, 510521 Guangzhou, China.
Dongmei
D
Zhao
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, 300074 Tianjin, China.
Desheng
D
Yin
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, 300074 Tianjin, China. Electronic address: jinhua@mail.tjnu.edu.cn.
Hua
H
Jin
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult
Cues; ERP; Emotional pictures; P2; P3; Uncertainty