N450 and LPC Event-Related Potential Correlates of an Emotional Stroop Task with Words Differing in Valence and Emotional Origin

Abstract

Affective meaning of verbal stimuli was found to influence cognitive control as expressed in the Emotional Stroop Task (EST). Behavioral studies have shown that factors such as valence, arousal, and emotional origin of reaction to stimuli associated with words can lead to lengthening of reaction latencies in EST. Moreover, electrophysiological studies have revealed that affective meaning altered amplitude of some components of evoked potentials recorded during EST, and that this alteration correlated with the performance in EST. The emotional origin was defined as processing based on automatic vs. reflective mechanisms, that underlines formation of emotional reactions to words. The aim of the current study was to investigate, within the framework of EST, correlates of processing of words differing in valence and origin levels, but matched in arousal, concreteness, frequency of appearance and length. We found no behavioral differences in response latencies. When controlling for origin, we found no effects of valence. We found the effect of origin on ERP in two time windows: 290–570 and 570–800 ms. The earlier effect can be attributed to cognitive control while the latter is rather the manifestation of explicit processing of words. In each case, reflective originated stimuli evoked more positive amplitudes compared to automatic originated words.

Valence and arousal of words in visual and conceptual interference control efficiency

“…On the other hand, controlling this factor did not significantly affect the impact of other emotional stimuli properties such as valence and origin in EST, see e.g. Imbir and colleagues 2017 [ 71 ]. Additionally, in further research, we could replicate the applied procedure including other dimensions of emotionality like origin or dominance.…”

The N400/FN400 and Lateralized Readiness Potential Neural Correlates of Valence and Origin of Words’ Affective Connotations in Ambiguous Task Processing

“…This pattern appeared to be coherent with our expectations. It is worth comparing the pattern of results for origin to results from an earlier experiment using implicit word processing in the emotional Stroop task ( Imbir et al, 2017 ). The same list of words was used; with no behavioral differences caused by valence and origin, automatic originated words were found to elicit more of a negative amplitude in a 290- to 570-ms time range than reflective originated words.…”

“…The opposite pattern of differences may account for differences in tasks used. Imbir et al (2017) depended upon participants’ reaction to each stimulus, whereas the current study involved passive reading, not requiring reactions. Possibly, the automatic origin of the affective meaning of words interferes with decision-making, whereas more complex reflective meaning ( Jarymowicz, 2012 ; Imbir, 2015 ; Jarymowicz and Imbir, 2015 ) creates interference (i.e., load) for storing in working memory.…”

“…We expected that the more difficult the trial would be (i.e., word to remember associated with a richer contextual information, like multidimensional criteria of evaluation characteristic to reflectively originated emotions), the more polarized would be the amplitude of ERP’s component. Taking into account earlier results of studies concerning emotional word processing and origin factor ( Imbir et al, 2016 , 2017 ), we expected dissociative effects of valence and origin. A valence effect should be present at posterior sites ( Kissler et al, 2007 ), and both positive and negative stimuli should evoke an amplitude different from the amplitude evoked by neutral stimuli.…”

Two Aspects of Activation: Arousal and Subjective Significance – Behavioral and Event-Related Potential Correlates Investigated by Means of a Modified Emotional Stroop Task

“…The whole experimental procedure was composed of three repetitions of two distinct lists of words. Each repetition consisted of presentation of the 135-word experimental list described above, alternating with presentation of a different 135-word list, which constituted the material for a second experiment concerning the role of valence and origin of an affective state associated with words for EST performance ( Imbir et al, 2017 ). The 135 items from the second list contrasted orthogonally three levels of valence (negative, neutral, positive) and three levels of origin of an affective state (automatic, control, reflective), factor claimed to be emotional manifestation of dual minds (cf.…”