Automatic processing of emotional words during an emotional Stroop task.

Full Abstract

There is evidence that early event-related potential components, such as the early posterior negativity (EPN; 200-300 ms), are modulated by emotional words. This study addressed the automaticity of this early response in an emotional Stroop task. The results show that the EPN was modulated by emotional connotation. In addition, an enhanced frontal P3 and an enhanced, more broadly distributed, late positive potential emerged as response to emotional words. The present results suggest that this early event-related potential activity represents the fast and automatic processing of emotional words. Furthermore, as the EPN originates from the posterior visual association cortex, the present results suggest a role of these areas in the automatic processing of emotional connotation.

Author information

Author/s: Franken, Ingmar H A (IH); Gootjes, Liselotte (L); van Strien, Jan W (JW);

Affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Erasmus Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. franken(-atsign-)fsw.eur.nl

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Neuroreport (Neuroreport), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-May; vol 20 (issue 8) : pp 776-81

Dates: Created 2009/05/13; Completed 2009/08/14;

PMID: 19369909, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 8/21/2009, IMS Date: )

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