A Study of High and Low Behavior Inhibitory Control on Emotional Labeling Effect from ERPs

Abstract

Emotional labeling effect refers to the reduction of Emotion in labeling or naming emotional features of stimulus. Previous researches have explored whether the ability of behavioral inhibition affects the regulation of explicit emotions, while there are no studies learning about the impact of behavioral inhibition on implicit emotions regulation. This study used ERPs to examine whether individuals with high and low behavioral inhibition control ability differed in their emotional labeling effects. Dual-choice Oddball task was used to screen out groups with high and low behavioral inhibition ability, and they were asked to make judgments on faces with different emotions and genders, and the LPP amplitude after picture presentation was analyzed. The results showed that the LPP amplitude induced by high inhibition ability group was significantly lower than that induced by gender labeling, while the LPP amplitude induced by low inhibition ability group was not significantly different between emotion labeling and gender labeling. The results show that individuals with high inhibition ability can produce emotion labeling effect, and the higher the inhibition ability of individuals, the better the emotional labeling effect.