Abstract
Both emotion and reward are primary modulators of cognition: emotional word content enhances word processing, and reward expectancy similarly amplifies cognitive processing from the perceptual up to the executive control level. Here, we investigate how these primary regulators of cognition interact. We studied how the anticipation of gain or loss modulates the neural time course (event-related potentials, ERPs) related to processing of emotional words. Participants performed a semantic categorization task on emotional and neutral words, which were preceded by a cue indicating that performance could lead to monetary gain or loss. Emotion-related and reward-related effects occurred in different time windows, did not interact statistically, and showed different topographies. This speaks for an independence of reward expectancy and the processing of emotional word content. Therefore, privileged processing given to emotionally valenced words seems immune to short-term modulation of reward. Models of language comprehension should be able to incorporate effects of reward and emotion on language processing, and the current study argues for an architecture in which reward and emotion do not share a common neurobiological mechanism.
Highlights
Emotional stimuli are special: they are processed faster and in a more elaborate manner than neutral stimuli
Emotion-related and reward-related effects occurred in different time windows, did not interact statistically, and showed different topographies.This speaks for an independence of reward expectancy and the processing of emotional word content.privileged processing given to emotionally valenced words seems immune to short-term modulation of reward
Neutral words (M = 652.37 ms, SD = 49.52) slowed down reaction times (RTs) compared to emotional words, while in concrete words neutral words (M = 601.13 ms, SD = 39.19) speeded up RT compared to emotional words
Summary
Emotional stimuli are special: they are processed faster and in a more elaborate manner than neutral stimuli. In this study we examined whether the privileged processing of emotional words is influenced by another potent and primary regulator of cognition, namely the expectancy of reward. Recent work (for review, see Pessoa and Engelmann, 2010) shows that the expectation of reward or loss modulates cognitive processing such as spatial attention (Hickey et al, 2010), or visual working memory (Krawczyk et al, 2007). We investigated whether emotional word processing is open to modulation by reward expectancy, or whether it is independent of such motivational effects. Due to its high temporal resolution, electroencephalography (EEG) allows for determining the influence of such modulations in different stages of word processing. The study reasonably complements the emerging research on extra-linguistic effects on the time course of language comprehension
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