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

Abstract

Recent behavioral studies revealed an interesting phenomenon concerning the influence of affect on the interpretation of ambiguous stimuli. In a paradigm, where the participants’ task was to read a word, remember its meaning for a while, and then choose one of two pictorial-alphabet-like graphical signs best representing the word sense, we observed that the decisions involving trials with reflective-originated verbal stimuli were performed significantly longer than decisions concerning other stimuli (i.e., automatic-originated). The origin of an affective reaction is a dimension which allows speaking of an affect as automatic (you feel it in your guts) or reflective (you feel it comes from your mind). The automatic affective reaction represents the immediate and inescapable as opposed to the reflective, i.e., the delayed and controllable affective responses to stimuli. In the current experiment, we investigated the neural correlates of performance in an QR-signs-selection ambiguous task. We found the effects of valence and origin in the N400/FN400 potential by means of a stimuli-locked analysis of the initial part of the task, that is, the remembering of a certain word stimulus in a working memory. The N400/FN400 effects were separated in space on scalp distribution. Reflective originated stimuli elicited more negative FN400 than other conditions, which means that such stimuli indeed are associated with conceptual incongruence or higher affective complexity of meaning, but distinct from purely cognitive concreteness. Moreover, the amplitude of the potential preceding the decision, analyzed in the response-locked way, was shaped by the origin of an affective state but not valence. Trials involving decisions concerning reflective-originated words were characterized by a more negative amplitude than trials involving automatic-originated and control word stimuli. This corresponds to the observed pattern of response latencies, where we found that latencies for reflective stimuli were longer than for automatic originated or control ones. Additionally, this study demonstrates that the proposed new ambiguous paradigm is useful in studies concerning the influence of affect on decisions.

Can valence and origin of emotional words influence the assessments of ambiguous stimuli in terms of warmth or competence?

“…This is especially important in the context of social cognition-if a particular object is perceived in negative categories, it not only influences the warmth and/or competence assessments, it is also very important to assess it quickly, as the object could possibly be threatening. This effect partially replicates the results from our previous study using ambiguous stimuli in which we found negative words promoted faster responses than neutral or positive words (Imbir et al, 2018).…”

Arousal, subjective significance and the origin of valence aligned words in the processing of an emotional categorisation task

“…The procedure employed in this experiment may be partially responsible for this shape of the effects—as the participants had to assess the emotionality consciously, the consideration was strongly involved in assessments; thus, the effect was present for reflective stimuli. We did not observe the effects of origin related to reaction times, which may be perceived as standing in contradiction to previous results [ 16 – 19 ] obtained for different paradigms. However, in the current experiment, we did not expect the effects of origin, mainly because of the strong influence of both arousal and subjective significance as activation factors for both automatic and reflective evaluative systems.…”

“…Compared to the aforementioned fear, the emotion of shame appears slower, and it requires cognitive processing—understanding the social rules and the situation of not obeying them. Earlier studies have suggested that these origins have shaped how we process information [ 16 – 19 ]. In the current experiment we decided to align to these emotional factors in terms of valence, which is one of the most basic emotional factors and is most likely to interact with other emotional factors [ 20 ].…”

The Role of the Valence, Arousing Properties and Subjective Significance of Subliminally Presented Words in Affective Priming

“…The origin affects social cognition judgments, namely choosing whether an object represents warm or competent traits (Imbir, 2017b). In a task using purely ambiguous decisions of choosing between two unintelligible objects, the origin was found to influence reaction times (Imbir et al, 2018b;Imbir, 2017b) and neural correlates of processing (Imbir et al, 2018b). As for judging the words themselves, automatic originated words have been assessed as more emotional, while reflective originated words elicited longer reaction times (Imbir et al, 2019).…”