The selective processing of briefly presented affective pictures: An ERP analysis

Recent event‐related potential (ERP) studies revealed the selective processing of affective pictures. The present study explored whether the same phenomenon can be observed when pictures are presented only briefly. Toward this end, pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures from the International Af...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychophysiology 2004-05, Vol.41 (3), p.441-449
Main Authors: Schupp, Harald T., Junghöfer, Markus, Weike, Almut I., Hamm, Alfons O.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activity levels. Psychomotricity
Adult
Affect
Affect - physiology
Affectivity. Emotion
Attention
Biological and medical sciences
Cues
Electroencephalography - psychology
Emotion
Erotica
Event-related potential
Evoked Potentials
Female
Functional Laterality - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Male
Motivation
Perception
Personality. Affectivity
Photic Stimulation
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Vigilance. Attention. Sleep
Visual Perception - physiology
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Summary:Recent event‐related potential (ERP) studies revealed the selective processing of affective pictures. The present study explored whether the same phenomenon can be observed when pictures are presented only briefly. Toward this end, pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures from the International Affective Pictures Series were presented for 120 ms while event related potentials were measured by dense sensor arrays. As observed for longer picture presentations, brief affective pictures were selectively processed. Specifically, pleasant and unpleasant pictures were associated with an early endogenous negative shift over temporo‐occipital sensors compared to neutral images. In addition, affective pictures elicited enlarged late positive potentials over centro‐parietal sensor sites relative to neutral images. These data suggest that a quick glimpse of emotionally relevant stimuli appears sufficient to tune the brain for selective perceptual processing.
ISSN:0048-5772
1469-8986
1540-5958
DOI:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2004.00174.x