The influence of emotionally significant visual stimuli on cortical evoked potentials

Abstract

Electrophysiological correlates of the perception of emotional stimuli were studied by means of recording the visual evoked potentials (EP) in 20 derivations (Fz, Cz, Pz, Oz, Fp1/2,F3/4,F7/8,C3/4,P3/4,T3/4,T5/6, andO1/2) during the emotional test performance. The performance of a special task by subjects was assessed positively or negatively (by administering emotionally positive or negative stimuli, respectively). Factor analysis revealed seven factors, which described the EP component structure. Analysis of variance demonstrated the influence of the emotional stimuli sign on the factorsP100,P140,N160,P220,P340, and “slow wave.” Hemispheric difference in reactions to the stimuli of a different emotional sign were recorded. During presentation of the positive and negative assessments, the amplitudes of the factorsP100,P340, and “slow wave” were maximally different in the left hemisphere, while the factorsN160 andP220 were maximally different in the right hemisphere